The lack of convenient access to healthcare can be dangerous in maintaining the quality of life. A person needs to have reliable access to healthcare in emergencies or cases of progressive consultation. Consequently, the healthcare sector needs to establish a functional system that supports healthcare provision to a large population without fail or in cases of scarcity. Therefore, hospitals and medical research facilities need to devise mechanisms that facilitate a smooth operation and continuous effective healthcare provision (Dassah et al. 2018). This paper provides insight into limited access to healthcare by evaluating the context, the relevance of access to healthcare, the people affected by limited access to healthcare, solutions that can be effective in providing good healthcare and comparing this discussion to opinions from the Capella library.
Background
Although healthcare is a necessity in human life, disparities in this sector can lead to unequal distribution of healthcare resources. Limited access to healthcare can arise from disability, poverty, ethnicity, age, and poor transport and communication means. Poverty makes it hard to pay for healthcare services. Moreover, poor transport hinders ease of access, especially by emergency response services such as ambulances. Furthermore, government and healthcare institutions’ regulations may impact access to healthcare services based on age and ethnicity. Therefore, it is important to evaluate the factors that limit access to healthcare and come up with solutions to help promote efficiency in healthcare services.
The credibility of information sources
Despite access to healthcare being a critical issue, very little research has been dedicated to providing solutions that promote healthcare conditions. Consequently, there have been misleading sources that present false information, affecting decision-making and formulation of effective healthcare policies. Therefore, it is important to ensure that information sources have authentic data that helps achieve healthcare goals. Information sources should have a good flow of ideas and an authentic data collection process to help develop effective solutions. The researchers need to develop a functional theoretical framework to achieve authenticity.
Relevance of information sources
Information sources should offer legitimate insight into the subject or topic, thus improving the quality of the findings. Therefore, a researcher should gauge the relevance of information sources and weed out outdated, biased, and unreliable information to develop clear and reliable outcomes. The findings include expert opinions, which guarantee quality and help create insightful research relevant to the topic.
Analysis of limited access to healthcare
Ineffective health insurance coverage is a leading contributor to limited access to healthcare. The use of out-of-pocket means in paying for healthcare services proves costly and might be ineffective in emergencies. Moreover, this payment method may be unfavourable among poor people due to a lack of financial planning (Bhatt & Bathija, 2018). However, rich populations have a better chance of accessing favourable health insurance, guaranteeing better healthcare quality. Moreover, poor transport and communication networks impair the delivery of healthcare services and emergency actions, thus limiting access to healthcare. However, the availability of maintained transport and communication networks eases access to healthcare services.
Furthermore, healthcare facilities can extend their services to remote areas to create an effective healthcare system that serves people with disabilities. Policies can affect the delivery of healthcare services based on age and ethnicity. For instance, work age limit restrictions affect health workers’ staffing, thus creating a gap in reaching effective staffing and service delivery.
Importance of researching limited access to healthcare
Healthcare plays a crucial role in society by ensuring continuity of life and effective execution of tasks. Therefore, it is necessary to conduct research and acquire information on risk factors, disease trends, and factors limiting healthcare access (Vecchio et al.,.2018). The research helps develop methods that improve healthcare quality and eliminate ineffective approaches.
Groups affected by limited access to healthcare.
The groups include rural populations, the uninsured, the economically disadvantaged, the elderly, and the racially marginalized. The solutions for limited access to healthcare are categorically dependent on the nature of the limitations. However, there are effective remedies that help create better healthcare service delivery. The use of telehealth technology helps promote medical outreach in rural and inaccessible areas. Telehealth involves using cloud-based data and video conferencing to share medical consultations. Medical practitioners can access information and conduct research in labs far from the site, making it faster to provide effective healthcare.
Community education is also another effective solution that promotes effective health care. Community awareness bridges the gap between patients and doctors, thus improving healthcare quality and limiting the escalation of medical conditions (Dassah et al., 2018). In addition, community education eliminates concerns about ethnical marginalization, promoting inclusion in accessing quality healthcare. Moreover, community education helps control contagious disease outbreaks by encouraging mass participation in seeking precautionary measures.
Finally, the use of free-standing emergency teams helps counter emergencies before medical conditions escalate. Moreover, government policies should aim to provide solutions to the uninsured population to promote efficiency in healthcare and address possible effective litigations to the entire population despite their age.
Compare and contrast opinions from this research and Capella Library findings.
The opinions from this research and Capella Library findings show similar causes that limit access to healthcare. For instance, a lack of medical insurance causes a significant disadvantage. In addition, poor transport and communication means create barriers to easing healthcare access. However, both research approaches address similar factors that cause inefficiency in providing healthcare.
Pros and cons of solutions proposed.
The proposed solutions to eliminating limited access to health care increase the availability of healthcare resources, thus promoting the patient’s quality of life. Moreover, the solutions make it easy for physicians to provide healthcare, creating a defined service delivery system. In addition, remote outreach helps create a good rapport between governments, remote citizens, and ethnic groups due to inclusivity. Furthermore, community education improves citizens’ knowledge. However, community education might cause misinformation, hence impairing the quality of healthcare.
Explain ethical principles if the potential solution was implemented.
If the potential solutions were implemented, there would be heightened cases of beneficence due to an increased sense of moral responsibility. This will be caused by the increased confidence in the healthcare sector and a need to be partisan in effecting positive changes. So, beneficence refers to the willingness to do good. For instance, the act of a physician holding a dying patient’s hand helps calm the patient. This is an appropriate moral responsibility to stop a dying patient from panicking or feeling lonely.
The nonmaleficence ethical principle infers that physicians are obligated not to harm patients. This principle is important in building g trust between patients and healthcare providers, increasing effectiveness in healthcare provision. Nonmaleficence requires that physicians weigh the risks of illness against the benefits and consequences of treatment before choosing the appropriate approach to treatment. Intervening when a patient wants to take harmful medicine is an example of nonmaleficence that eliminates self-harm.
Autonomy is the third ethical principle that gives individuals the right to make decisions on medical approaches without interference from physicians or other persons. Autonomy helps eliminate confrontations and boosts trust in the healthcare sector due to inclusivity in decision-making. For instance, operating on patients might be life-altering, hence the need to acquire a patient’s consent before operation. This cushioned physicians from facing judicial discipline if the outcome was unfamiliar or the patient’s medical condition escalated.
The justice ethical principle provides that inequality should be addressed unequally, and equals should be treated equally. In simple words, the justice principle provides that characters with similar features should get the same services while characters with varying features need to be treated differently. For instance, the parameters in offering treatment should not be inhibited by a difference in social classes. Social class profiling is deemed an injustice.
References
Bhatt and Bathija. (2018). Ensuring access to quality health care in vulnerable communities. PubMed Central (PMC). https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6112847/
Dassah et al,. (2018). Factors affecting access to primary health care services for persons with disabilities in rural areas: A “best-fit” framework synthesis. Global Health Research and Policy. https://ghrp.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s41256-018-0091-x
Vecchio et al,. (2018). The effect of inadequate access to healthcare services on emergency room visits. A comparison between physical and mental health conditions. PLOS. https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0202559
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