Healthcare
The term health care refers to the inter-related system of care provided to persons during illness. In most of the cases, healthcare begins with the family doctor who refers patient to specialists if needed or directly order further diagnostic testing. Community health clinics perform the same procedure as a family doctor, but alongside with that, clinics also provide insight into patterns of health or illness seen within the community. Hospital just form one part of the healthcare community, as are mostly visited when a patient's condition is more acute and requires intervention by the hospitals high-end staff, since more can be done for him in a hospital rather than in a clinic where he is just an out-patient.
Clinics of various types provide very specific services, such as "pain management clinics" these clinics are targeted for towards people suffering from pain conditions. Rehabilitation services also form a needed part of in-patient and out-patient health care services. Respiratory therapy, Speech therapy and Occupational therapy are also important components in health care treatment and recovery. "Mental Health parity" struggles to provide services for emotional/mental health in a way that is equivalent to physical health care. Thus, "Health care" is a complex system designed to educate, diagnose, treat, and rehabilitate before/during/after a mental/emotional or physical health problem (DDI. 2006).
There are various forums and communities throughout the world that contribute in making healthcare possible, apart from all the work done by governmental organizations. In this paper we will choose a prominent personality from the nonprofit healthcare community and interview them about their work, goals, achievements and statements on various issues. Also we will provide a comprehensive discussion in relation to the interview supported by various researches and theories.
Nonprofit organization have played a critical part in the financing and delivery of healthcare services in the past, and still continue to do so still. Such organizations are a part of the U.S. economy's "third sector," which is very different as compared to its others sectors yet highly interdependent with, the other two sectors -- government and the for-profit business sector. The country's first hospital, the Pennsylvania Hospital, was founded in 1751 as a nonprofit facility and continues to operate as such today. 50 years later America's first insurance plan was founded as nonprofit organization by a nonprofit hospital in Texas (DDI. 2006).
Today about 60% of community hospitals are nonprofit, all community health centers are nonprofit, almost 30% of nursing homes are nonprofit, and about 17% of home health care agencies are estimated to be nonprofit. Nonprofit health plans1 are estimated to serve over 40% or more of all private health insurance enrollees (DDI. 2007).
To discover more on the status of healthcare and the services invested in this field we conducted an interview with a prominent organization, by the name of SHARP, and spoke to CEO Dede Alpert, about her organizations activities in the healthcare sector. Sharp HealthCare is a not-for-profit integrated regional health care organization and delivery system based in San Diego, California. Sharp includes four acute-care hospitals, three specialty hospitals, two affiliated medical groups and a health plan, plus a full spectrum of other facilities and services.
The first question we asked Dede was about her position in Sharp. Dede Alpert is the current managing CEO if Sharp, she joined the organization in 2002 and is the 5th managing CEO for the organization. She is the driving force behind earning the organization the 2007 Malcome Baldrige National Quality Award, which is an award presented to company's and organization for the recognizing their services among the three sectors in the U.S. It was also under her managing skills that Sharp was named a gold-level award recipient t by the California Council for Excellence (CCE) for the California Awards for Performance Excellence (CAPE) program, the state-level affiliate of the Baldrige Award, in 2006. With such credentials under her name, no wonder Sharp is recognized throughout the country.
The second question we asked her was regarding her leadership style and ideas. According to her healthcare is a 24-hour job, because if it is not the internal work related concerns, then it is the external assistance to the various sister and affiliated sister companies and organizations working for the same cause. "My plans are to improve and provide healthcare incentives to communities so that a proper standard can be set, and to improve the healthcare process for those that Sharp serves, with of course a commitment...
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