RDoyle_Unit 2 Essay

docx

School

University of Alabama *

*We aren’t endorsed by this school

Course

434

Subject

Medicine

Date

Apr 3, 2024

Type

docx

Pages

Uploaded by raddoyle97

Riley Doyle HOM-5306-D02 4/02/2023 Unit 2 Essay Welcome to the 150 th anniversary for one of the oldest hospitals in the great state of Texas! Today, as we celebrate the world of medicine and medical professionals, we shall journey back in time to revisit some of the historical medical moments and achievements that led us to this very moment. Traveling as far back as pre-industrial times, healthcare was viewed as a form of charity rather than a cure. Medical universities, ten year degree plans, etc. did not exist. Rather, the study of medicine was habitually learned under apprenticeship where a budding physician trained under a current physician. Furthermore, healthcare during this day and age was typically family oriented. Financially speaking, physicians were costly and not always in close proximity. Health insurance also did not exist. Hospitals were seen as infection wards, and the wealthy often chose not to receive medical attention in such places. As time went on and medical practices developed, medical schools were born for those aspiring to treat the health concerns of the people. Within these schools, there was not a lot of structure to the education system. However, post-industrial era times after the Civil War is when the medical field drastically began to change. As the textbook Delivering Health Care In America lists out, there are seven factors that led to this growth: “urbanization, science and technology, institutionalization, dependency, autonomy and organization, licensing, and educational reform” (Shi & Singh, 2017). As urbanization swept much of the United States, family oriented healthcare became less common as people lived further away from each other and the women/mothers began going to work instead of staying home. Life became easier to correspond from a distance with the 1

Riley Doyle HOM-5306-D02 4/02/2023 inventions of cars and telephones. Because more and more people could now travel to their doctor versus their doctor traveling to them, this alleviated some of the healthcare expense. With technological and societal changes, doctors were starting to see an increase in the number of patients they saw on a daily basis. Authors Shi and Singh outline in their book, titled Delivering Health Care in America , a series of science and technology breakthroughs in the medical field that we still implement in today’s world. Back in 1846, one of the most innovative medical discoveries was tested during a dental appointment. It transformed into what we now call anesthesia. Because of anesthesia, doctors are able to perform surgeries while the patient is essentially asleep and does not feel any pain. Before the birth of anesthesia, doctors’ only way to help alleviate some of the pain was to have patients drink alcohol. A year after anesthesia was discovered, the vital importance of washing hands was implemented in a Vienna hospital because Ignaz Semmelweis believed there may be a connection between the non-washing of hands and the spread of disease. Also in the 1800s, Louis Pasteur made headlines by sterilizing medical tools. Mid-1800s, a surgeon by the name of Joseph Lister developed a method by which wounds can be protected from infections before and post surgeries (Shi & Singh, 2017). X-rays became popular towards the end of the 1800s; this was monumental as before x- rays were used, doctors could not see broken bones, swallowed objects, etc., without cutting open the person. Wilhelm Roentgen can be credited with discovering x-rays when he was experimenting with cathode rays. In the end, he determined that x-rays could penetrate human 2

Riley Doyle HOM-5306-D02 4/02/2023 flesh, providing doctors with pictures of bones and tissue. In 1901, Roentgen received the first Nobel Prize in physics (Chodos & Ouellette, 2001). In the 1870s, society started to enact medical educational reform when universities began to associate themselves with medical programs. Harvard Medical School did a transformation of their program during this time period. In 1893, John Hopkins University opened up their first medical school. Medical school entrance basic requirement was transitioned from a high school diploma to a graduate degree (Shi & Singh, 2017). Abraham Flexner further revamped the medical program when he performed what is referred to as the Flexner report. This study is the reason why physicians must have clinical studies and labs to graduate with a medical doctorate degree. Moving on to the topic of health insurance, before the Great Depression, health insurance in the United States was mainly held by the private sector. Private health insurance started at Baylor University Hospital in Dallas, Texas. Justin Kimball pioneered the idea of getting teachers to pay fifty centers each month in exchange for twenty-one days of hospital care. This became known as the prepaid plan and was adopted by insurance companies such as Blue Cross (Shi & Singh, 2017). Furthermore, part of the reason health insurance was largely private sector is due to the democratic ideals in the United States. America was born on the vision of freedom, with people getting to make their own choices, such as who their health insurance provider is. Additionally, healthcare insurance favored the middle-class families in America because they could afford the higher costs, while the disadvantaged, such as the retired or unemployed citizens, struggled to receive healthcare coverage. Thus, social and political pressures led to the 3

Your preview ends here

Eager to read complete document? Join bartleby learn and gain access to the full version

Access to all documents
Unlimited textbook solutions
24/7 expert homework help

Riley Doyle HOM-5306-D02 4/02/2023 creation of Medicare and Medicaid in 1965. As an amendment to the Social Security Amendment, Medicare provides seniors, those at the age of sixty-five and above, with the opportunity to receive healthcare coverage. As a federal institution, Medicare is a service American citizens pay into through income taxation. On the other hand. Medicaid is a combination of federal and state government healthcare. Designed primarily for moms and children, it is part of the Affordable Care Act, title XIX (Shi & Singh, 2017). Medicare is generally favored over Medicaid for a variety of reasons. Medicare had the same policies, standards, benefits anywhere in the United States, whereas Medicaid coverage changed depending on the state. Also, Medicare provides the option to balance bill whereas Medicaid does not. Due to this paying difference, many healthcare professionals reject Medicaid because the government tends to pay lower for healthcare coverage (Shi & Singh, 2017). One interesting fact to note about Medicare and Medicaid is that while these services are under the government, they must rely heavily on the private sector to provide the healthcare services to the elderly/moms/children/etc. Because of this, health insurance is a balance of power between government and private sectors. In 2010, the Affordable Care Act was voted into legislation. With three main goals, the Affordable Care Act aimed to decrease the number of Americans without health insurance by making healthcare more affordable to citizens, expanding the Medicaid program coverage, and improving healthcare efficiency (Silvers, 2013). However, while this coverage was supposed to help Americans receive health insurance, it ended up being quite costly and put greater financial 4

Riley Doyle HOM-5306-D02 4/02/2023 strain on much of the middle class. One of the benefits of ACA was that it did help the lower income be able to purchase healthcare coverage. In the last one hundred and fifty years, healthcare has come a long way in the United States. While healthcare originally was dominated by family-oriented care, factors such as urbanization, science and technology have rapidly changed the medical field into a more physician oriented practice. Today, we live in a world where doctors can provide patients with x- rays, antiseptic practices, and anesthesia to provide diagnoses and treatments more effectively. Medical studies have transformed from solely apprenticeship practice to an undergraduate degree then a medical graduate degree plan. Healthcare insurance was born and has been divided into private and governmental sectors. As we look forward to the next one hundred and fifty years of medical field growth, let us take a moment to celebrate how far we have come from the 1800s to now. 5

Riley Doyle HOM-5306-D02 4/02/2023 References Chodos, A., & Ouellette, J. (2001, November). November 8, 1895: Roentgen's discovery of X- rays . American Physical Society. Retrieved April 2, 2023, from https://www.aps.org/publications/apsnews/200111/history.cfm Shi, L., & Singh, D. (2017). Delivering health care in america: A systems approach: A systems approach . Jones & Bartlett Publishers. Silvers, J. B. (2013, September). The Affordable Care Act: Objectives and likely results in an Imperfect World . Annals of family medicine. Retrieved April 2, 2023, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3767707/ 6

Your preview ends here

Eager to read complete document? Join bartleby learn and gain access to the full version

Access to all documents
Unlimited textbook solutions
24/7 expert homework help

RDoyle_Unit 2 Essay

Related Documents