Health Care

Health Care is the maintenance or improvement of health via the prevention, diagnosis, treatment, recovery, or cure of disease, illness, injury, and other physical and mental impairments in people. Health care is delivered by health professionals and allied health fields.

Definition

Health care, also known as healthcare, is the organized provision of medical care to individuals or a community. The field includes the work done in providing primary care, secondary care, and tertiary care, as well as in public health.

Primary Care

Primary care refers to the work of health professionals who act as a first point of consultation for all patients within the health care system. Such a professional would usually be a primary care physician, such as a general practitioner or family physician.

Secondary Care

Secondary care includes acute care: necessary treatment for a short period of time for a brief but serious illness, injury, or other health condition. This care is often found in a hospital emergency department.

Tertiary Care

Tertiary care is specialized consultative health care, usually for inpatients and on referral from a primary or secondary health professional, in a facility that has personnel and facilities for advanced medical investigation and treatment, such as a tertiary referral hospital.

Public Health

Public health is concerned with threats to the overall health of a community based on population health analysis. The population in question can be as small as a handful of people or as large as all the inhabitants of several continents.

Health Care Systems

Health care systems are organizations established to meet the health needs of targeted populations. Their exact configuration varies between national and subnational entities. In some countries and jurisdictions, health care planning is distributed among market participants, whereas in others, planning occurs more centrally among governments or other coordinating bodies.

Health Care Financing

Health care financing refers to the manner in which resources are mobilized and pooled to fund the health system. It involves not only methods of raising money for health care, but also allocation of those funds.

Health Care Policy

Health care policy is the decisions, plans, and actions that are undertaken to achieve specific health care goals within a society. It outlines the priorities and the expected roles of different groups; it shapes the environment in which health and health care are delivered.

See Also

• Health care provider
• Health care reform
• Health care industry
• Health care research

Health Care Resources
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