HEALTH CARE AVAILABILITY

Healthcare availability, from the word availability is defined as the sufficient supply or stock of the health workers for their patients. Health care refers to the essential health care made accessible to individuals in a community at costs that they can afford. In this pandemic world, covid is causing a range of illnesses, from the common cold to more serious infections, from school closures to devastated industries, and millions of jobs lost. Healthcare is a very important factor to determine the physical and mental well-being of the people and the health workers play a critical role in improving access and quality healthcare. Having health insurance is important for several reasons such as they are secured when it comes to medical care.

-HEALTH CARE AVAILABILITY ISSUE

Limited availability of health care resources is another barrier that may reduce access to health services and increase the risk of poor health outcomes, which means that patients experience longer wait times and delayed care.

Most of the time, healthcare inequality is also a problem which is when one group of people in an economy is in much worse health than another group, with limited access to care.

Preventable medical errors and hospital readmissions due to lack of quality care put consumers’ health at risk, but they also waste valuable time and resources, making healthcare inefficient.

-IMPORTANCE OF HEALTHCARE

People demand health because of its role in facilitating and providing happiness, in fact it is a very important factor to determine the physical and mental well-being of a person. Acquiring a better awareness of a patient's health beliefs may help healthcare providers identify gaps between their own and the patient's understanding of his or her health situation. Consequently, this may lead to treatment choices more acceptable to the patient's expectations and needs. When people have access to health care, they live healthier, miss work less, and allowing them to contribute more to the community. The Philippines’ spending for health is driving its stable growth over the past years. Although, the industry has seen stable growth, the social health care systems has yet to provide more extensive health care coverage by minimizing out of pocket expenses.

-HEALTH CARE AVAILABILITY INCREASE THE RISK OF POOR HEALTH OUTCOMES.

Without sufficient availability, accessibility to health workers cannot be guaranteed; if they are available and accessible, without acceptability, the health services might not be used, when the quality of the health workforce is inadequate, improvements in health outcomes will not be satisfactory. Other factors clearly have an impact, they include poverty and its correlates, geographic area of residence, race and ethnicity, sex, age, language spoken, and disability status. In addition to a shortage of healthcare providers, there is a lack of hospital beds and medical equipment in the Philippines.

Many Filipinos do not get access to basic care. This country has a high maternal and newborn mortality rate, and a high fertility rate. In this time of pandemic, this creates problems for those who have especially limited access to this basic care or for those living in generally poor health conditions.

We can improve it by these four steps in order to understand the patient’s needs and health journey.

1. Analyze outcomes and collect data

The first step to improving the quality of care is to analyze the existing data to understand where opportunities exist and use the data to establish a baseline for patient outcomes.

2. Improve access to care

Having access to care is the single most important factor for improving quality healthcare and patient outcomes. Patients must have access to the right care at the right time in order to get the right results.

3. Focus on patient engagement

Patients can be the best advocates for their own health, but first they have to be engaged and taught to be proactive healthcare consumers. The care provider should find effective ways to connect and encourage communication between families, other care providers, insurance providers, and social services throughout the patient’s entire healthcare journey.

4. Connect and collaborate

Healthcare organizations that is truly want to improve their quality of care should regularly research and learn from other organizations either in their own region or across the country.

-MOVE AND IMPROVE

In this time of pandemic, people can be hesitant about seeking care. They might worry about their diagnosis or their inability to make needed changes, or they might feel shame but here are some effective strategies.

1. Good care comes from access to the same person or team who knows a patient's history. A lack of continuity causes errors, reduces compliance and is particularly troublesome for the fragile patient.

2. Manage smooth patient flow within the hospital environment and out into the community with the automation of key processes. This improved clinical efficiency helps to ensure patient safety from admission through discharge and on to care in the home. With the correct utilization of health systems within a hospital, resources can be used more effectively.

3. Detect potential problems and proactively take action before downtime becomes an issue.

4. Expanding training program for general practitioners.

-THINGS TO DO

Health care availability is a social issue which means most of the population did not achieve the proper care especially in this time of pandemic. We should look forward to this situation and follow the health protocols. It can help us to reduce the covid cases, plus we may help other people that is ilwith this kind of actions.