Search

Health planning in this paper is considered as a developmental process in which different types of planning appear at different times. These types are discussed and the place in the complex health care system developing in the United States is assessed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides information on contraceptive practices of women in certain low-income areas useful for family planning agencies, and examines the utilization patterns of the medically indigent poor as compared with others in low income areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper endeavors to overcome one difficulty in health planning, namely, the transformation of general goals and ideas into operational objectives for programs. A method is developed to be used for generating such program objectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper deals with the political strategies employed by the Minnesota Comprehensive Health Planning Program to remove legal impediments to effective manpower planning, as well as the consequences. Conclusions as to alternative courses of action are stated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper emphasizes the need to bring environmental health into the framework of comprehensive health planning. The author discusses how this can be done. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on the challenges faced by the American Public Health Association on the development of the association's Medical Care Section in the U.S. On November 10, 1948, the American Public Health Association's Governing Council voted to approve the petition requesting the establishment of a Medical Care Section. In 1972, the association expanded their health services because of the changes on their needs and demands. In 1920, the association created a committee to study the municipal health departments and determine the extent of variation on the health services and procedures offered in a specific community.

The article focuses on the development of neighborhood health center approach to health care delivery in the U.S. The neighborhood health centers have proliferated under a variety of federal grant-in-aid programs and private sources of support. It was mentioned that neighborhood health center approach demands an increasing emphasis on cost-effective management of neighborhood health centers and increased revenue generation activities. In addition, changes in federal health service funding policies have necessitated a reevaluation of sources of future support for neighborhood health centers.

The article examines a federally funded guidance clinic to determine its treatment for lower classes and minorities. It was found that this clinic provides treatment without bias in all groups, regardless of ethnicity, education, or occupation. Its nondiscriminatory policy in the selection and treatment of those belonging to ethnic and social classes is undermined by its complex intake procedures and long waiting lists. About 49 percent of clients requesting services was never seen by the clinic.

Improvement is required in the theoretical bases of health planning in order for needed advances to occur in health planning practice. Four major planning strategies are utilized in other public policy sectors: the rational, the incremental, the mixed scanning and the radical strategies. All four strategies are potentially useful in health planning and their impact is suggested in a health planning situation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A method was developed for the evaluation of alternative primary health care team compositions and for the examination of skill levels for new categories of personnel. This procedure determines the appropriate composition of primary health care teams for differing demand levels and facility availabilities. A simulation model of a general primary health care delivery unit was developed as part of this procedure. This simulation model given demand schedules, team compositions, and facility levels, produces information relating to the efficiency and effectiveness of that alternative. An application of the simulation model and the evaluation procedure was made to the area of pediatrics. A time study was taken of pediatric office practice. The data gathered therein were analyzed and used to create various demand schedules. Task-capability lists were created for various proposed categories of allied child health personnel, and these personnel were incorporated into various alternative team compositions and tested against varying facility and demand levels. Results indicate there are instances where a team structure is inappropriate and that the first member added to aid the physician is probably a person to assume lower level repetitive tasks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A study of first admissions to all state and three large private mental hospitals in the state of Michigan from 1938 to ]942 reveals a concentration of high rates in the Upper Peninsula counties. These counties are part of what has been delineated as a rural problem area—an area of cut-over forests, decadent mining industry and marginal or submarginal agriculture. Exploratory correlations between the county mental disease rates and selected indices of socio-economic disorganization, such as percentage of population on relief, percentage of tax-delinquent land, and average value of land, proved to be non-significant. However, the high rates did seem to be related to nativity composition of the population. Foreign born and second generation immigrants were found to have much higher rates than native born populations. Correlations between mental disease rates and the number of foreign born in each county were inversely significant, both for the total foreign born and the constituent nationalities. The findings would seem to support the culture- conflict, social isolation theory of mental disease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the use of political platforms for health issues in the U.S. It is commonly found that public and private interests does not appropriately represent their constituencies when they fail to participate in the platform process. The platform process is divided into three closely related phases including preparation, participation, and propitiation. The first phase starts prior to the platform committee hearings when a platform is drafted by appointed writers. The health planks of the political parties are considered as the predictor instrument for the introduction of new health programs or policies. Since 1952, the chief parties of the U.S. have had good records when it came to transforming these programs into action legislation.

A report is presented giving up-to-date information on State Boards of Health covering composition, functions, method of appointment, term of office, professional representation, consumer representation, recent changes, and a number of other topics. This is a useful review for all concerned with the health services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a widespread, growing awareness of the need for change in financing, organization, distribution and quality of health care. The need for planning is increasingly recognized, but the possibility of change is related to political developments. A crisis in health care has been proclaimed. The factors and attitudes involved are discussed and the chances for change are evaluated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Three directions in health policy in the United States (health maintenance organizations, allied health personnel, social reform) are discussed in terms of strengths' weaknesses and implications. The author provides much food for thought. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The resumption of relations with the People's Republic of China has aroused the interest of health workers in the United States concerning the organization and provision of health care in that country. This comprehensive review of the political, economic, cultural and legal determinants which have molded the Chinese system for the delivery of health care throws light on some aspects, and raises questions requiring more information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The following report on health conditions in China has special value and interest. The author, a public health nurse, knows Chinese and had worked as a nurse in China during the period immediately preceding the establishment of the People's Republic. Moreover, her account covers several topics not covered in other reports. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This author argues that health care delivery should continue under voluntary nonprofit auspices as far as possible and that the health system should adopt appropriate modern managerial and organizational approaches to achieve greater economy and effectiveness. Decentralized planning with consumer participation is the preferred approach and must be kept viable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This report presents observations and conclusions on the free clinics operating in Chicago, and offers generalizations on the free clinic movement in the United States, as well as its relation, present and potential, to the changing health care delivery system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Taking a critical view of national health insurance, the author asserts that it is not a popular movement but rather a means of providing public subsidies for financially shaky elements of the health power structure. An alternative plan is proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Quite a few people in public health have been thinking what Dr. Freedman says, and are wondering where we are really going. The fragmentation and the attitudes to which he addresses himself must be seen in terms of the need for development of comprehensive health services for all Americans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The implications of federal legislation of health care services and of health maintenance organizations for planning are presented and discussed. The elements of a plan to anticipate coming changes are offered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A review of national health indicators shows that much remains to be done before a national health accounting system can be established as a basis for planned social change. One question concerns the readiness of health policy-makers to accept such a challenge to use a new set of norms, or their likelihood to deal with piecemeal adjustments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

National health insurance and group practice will not of themselves solve the American health crisis. A basic defect in the delivery system must be dealt with, namely, to regulate the flow of patients into the system according to need. To do this, a regulatory health-testing system is described, and the need to create a new delivery system, to conserve health manpower is stressed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the discrepancies in the functioning of health centres in England and Wales. Although the so called failure of health centres arose from a variety of factors operating at national and local level, it was caused in the main by the limitations on capital expenditure required by the central government. The attitude of the British Medical association (BMA) also demands consideration, for its views and actions have influenced family doctors whose cooperation determines the success of every health centre scheme. That general practitioners can refuse to work in centres derives from their status as independent entrepreneurs. It is in fact, crucial that, whatever the profession's approval of the concept at a high level of generalization, BMA resolutely opposed the widespread provision of centres by local authorities during the planning stage of the Service. Poor communications have also affected health centre schemes. Lack of early consultation with the doctors is reported from some of the centres that came into existence.

ABSTRACT A simple demand and supply model is proposed to "explain" the wide variations in state and local government expenditures on health and hospitals, and to assess the impact of Medicaid in satisfying the health needs of blacks. The model shows that a large percentage of the variation can be explained and that blacks tend to demand and evidently receive a higher proportion of public health care on the basis of their income than one would expect. The discriminatory effects of Medicare are more than offset by a combination of Medicaid and state and local spending on health care, although the continuing racial health gap indicates that state and local spending has not offset the wide differences between blacks and whites in private and Medicare spending. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This statement calling attention once more to the social causes of disease gets down to fundamentals. It emphasizes the degree to which public health problems are generated by society and can be handled meaningfully by changing social conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What effect has Medicare had on the provision of health services by a number of community health resources? In answering this question, major attention is given to community general hospitals, although other providers are mentioned. A number of effects are noted but generally there has been a relative lack of coordination so far of the different resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports on the evaluation of health program from a political perspective. According to the author, the Congress is vitally interested in health evaluations but disappointments need to be tempered with a sensitive understanding of the complexity of the issues involved and the state of fragmentation characterizing the health care arena. He states that the congressional legislative activities in health and the Congress' interest in evaluation are intimately related. He emphasizes that the pre-eminent health issue is national health insurance.

The article discusses the conceptual framework for embarking on the design of objectives for a community mental health plan, where a number of administratively independent facilities provide mental health services to the population. Each component unit must determine and submit its own goals and objectives in designing a mental health plan subscribed to by various service organizations. The health plan's objectives should be proposed with due recognition for three characteristics, including relevancy, practicability and measurability.

The article discusses the increase of involuntary sterilization of poor especially the minority females in the U.S., according to the American Public Health Association (APHA). APHA cites an incident involving welfare mothers who are about to give birth and faced with the choice of consenting to sterilization as a condition of medical care. It has mentioned that the practices would violate not only legal concepts of due process but the most fundamental respect for human dignity and the basic rights of human beings.

The author reflects on the difference between Canada and the U.S. with regards to the payment and provision of health care to the public. He argues that the health care system of Canada offers a wide variety of health plans and services to people, regardless of their social status. On the other hand, the U.S. offers health care services and plans to people who are capable of paying such expenses. An overview of the health care systems of the two countries is offered.