The Secret of Great Health Care
Chapter 2: Quality of Care is Poor
Americans often do not receive health care that is recommended. One study found that 54.9% of Americans receive recommended health care. Women get better health care than men, but only slightly so. Women get recommended care 56.6% of the time while men get recommended health care 52.3% of the time. While there were noted differences between groups, the differences were small. The bottom line is that as a group, Americans receive recommended care between 50-60% of the time (1). This is not an isolated study. Other research has backed up that only about half of Americans receive recommended care. These numbers are pathetic. When there is access to the greatest health care in the world there should be better numbers than this. What does this mean? This study evaluated acute care, preventative care and chronic care. Acute care is care that people receive when they have an illness that comes on fast. This may include: sore throat, pneumonia, ear infection or urinary tract infection. Almost half of the time you go in for a sore throat you will not get appropriate care. This may include the wrong diagnosis, wrong antibiotic or inappropriate use of diagnostic tests. Preventative health care is care that is received to prevent health problems. Common examples of preventative health care include: There is a large risk you are not up to date on your preventative health care and do not even know it. Do you rely on your doctor to assure all of your preventative health care is up to date? You shouldn’t. The health care system does a poor job at this. Chronic diseases are often poorly managed. Chronic disease is a disease that persists and is a major contributor to death and disability in America. There is no excuse for poor medical management of chronic disease being responsible for death and disability, but it often is. Common chronic diseases include: heart disease, high blood pressure, osteoporosis and diabetes. 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Exercise Ebooks are a series of ebooks that offer the most powerful training information on the planet. ________________________________________________________________________________________________ Extra: How to Get a Health Insurance Quote Diabetes, a common chronic disease, requires strict management to prevent complications. Diabetics are commonly cared for by specialists called endocrinologists. It is not unusual for the busy endocrinologist to forget to run some of the recommended tests or assume that the primary care health care provider is taking care of these tests. To prevent complications, diabetics need to have a blood test called a hemoglobin A1C - which looks at long-term blood sugar control - run at least two times a year. In addition, cholesterol levels, blood pressure, and kidney function needs to be monitored closely. Diabetics should also have dilated eye exams on a routine basis. Adequate control of the blood sugar is critical to controlling the disease and an accurate record of blood sugar readings needs to be reported to the health care provider so the disease can be managed properly. Because of the multiple tests that need to be run and the variety of health care providers responsible for these tests, it is not unusual for something to get missed. If the patient is practicing health care responsibility they are overseeing their care to assure all screenings and treatments are in place. At this point you may be saying, "I didn’t go to medical school, my doctor did. My doctor needs to know all of this and make these decisions." You are right; most doctors do know this information. But you must also ask yourself, "Why are so many patients not medically managed according to standard guidelines?" There are many answers for this question. Whatever the reason for recommended treatments or screenings not being done, it puts patients at risk. Patients who are empowered with knowledge and feelings of camaraderie with their health care provider are more likely to receive optimal medical care. __________________________________________________________________________ How to Prevent &Even Reverse HEART DISEASE- Without Drugs or Surgery! This is the ONLY anti-heart disease 200-page Special Report on the web written by a former cardiologist/surgeon ... who now reveals the real truth to you! Don’t trust your life to some ghostwriter. Get the real facts on how to reverse or prevent heart disease here. __________________________________________________________________________ It does not matter who you are - rich, poor, black or white - many people are at risk for receiving sub-optimal health care. National plans to give everyone access to health care is not enough. Individuals need to take responsibility for their own health. Reference:
Those over 64-years-old receive lower health care scores than those under 31-years-old. Blacks and Hispanics got better health care than whites. Those with higher household incomes got better health care (1).
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To illustrate how a common chronic disease can lead to problems we will explore diabetes.
Just because you have access to health care does not mean that you will receive good health care. While having access to health care is important it does not guarantee good health care.
