US Healthcare Policies and Delivery Systems
What is public health?

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Public health is a branch of health care that specifically deals with the health of the population as a whole; focusing on hygiene, epidemiology and disease prevention.
The aim of public health is to protect and improve the health of the population and their communities. The populations can vary in size. Research is done to target populations who are at risk or currently experiencing unsafe issues. Public health combats these concerns through promoting healthy lifestyles, disease and injury prevention research, and detecting, researching and responding to infectious diseases. These objectives are met when public health professionals implement educational programs, recommend policies, administering services while also conducting research. Even though public health professionals don’t treat patients in the same way as doctors or nurses they aim to limit health disparities by promoting healthcare equity, quality and accessibility.
Federal Initiatives for Public Health


The initiatives can be found on the CDC website at:
https://www.cdc.gov/publichealthgateway/strategy/index.html
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Alzheimer’s Disease
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Healthy Aging in Action: Advancing the National Prevention Strategy Cdc-pdf[PDF-4.14MB]
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The Healthy Brain Initiative: A National Public Health Road Map to Maintaining Cognitive Health
Chronic Disease
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National Action Plan for Cancer Survivorship: Advancing Public Health Strategies
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National Public Health Agenda for Osteoarthritis Cdc-pdf[PDF-2.2MB]
Cross-Cutting Topics
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National Action Plan to Improve Health LiteracyExternal
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CDC’s Health Literacy Site (includes action plan)
Emergency Preparedness & Response
Environmental Health
Health Disparities
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HHS Action Plan to Reduce Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities Cdc-pdf[PDF-98MB]External
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National Stakeholder Strategy for Achieving Health EquityExternal
Health IT
Healthcare Quality
Heart Disease & Stroke
Immunization/Vaccination
Infectious Disease
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Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria
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Healthcare-Associated Infections
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Hepatitis
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HIV/AIDS
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Influenza (Flu)
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Tuberculosis
Injury & Violence Prevention (Child Safety, Highway Safety, Occupational Safety, Suicide, Violence)
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Facing Addiction in America: The Surgeon General’s Report on Alcohol, Drugs, and HealthExternal
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National Action Plan for Adverse Drug Event PreventionExternal
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National Strategies for Advancing Child Pedestrian Safety Cdc-pdf[PDF-277KB]
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National Strategy for Suicide Prevention: Goals and Objectives for ActionExternal
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Toward Zero Deaths: A National Strategy on Highway Safety Cdc-pdf[PDF-2.69MB]External
Reproductive Health
Smoking & Tobacco Use
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Surgeon General’s Report on Smoking and Health, The Health Consequences of Smoking—50 Years of Progress Cdc-pdf[PDF-35.95MB]ExternalSee Chapter 16, “A Vision for Ending the Tobacco Epidemic: Toward a Society Free of Tobacco-Caused Death and Disease” (page 865)
Workforce

Photo credit: Foutain and Warren County Health Department

Photo Credit: Federal News Network
Photo Credit: https://www.apprise.org.au

Photo Credit: American Heart Association

Photo Credit: Trinity Health

Photo Credit:


Photo credit: Lola Koktysh

Photo credit: www.cdc.gov

Photo credit: Thinkstock

Photo Credit: Kaiser Health News

Photo Credit: Photostock

Photo Cerdit: World Health Organization

Poht Credit: CDC
Photo Cerdit: EHS Today
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State of Washington Initiatives

The state of Washington has a plan for 9 specific areas of public health.
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1. Healthy starts
2. Sexual and reproductive health
3. Tobacco and substance abuse prevention
4. Active and safe environments
5. Healthy eating
6. Screening, referral and follow-up
7. Social and emotional wellness
8. Quality clinical and preventive treatment services
9. Health equity
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The PDF file for the full plan can be found here:
https://www.doh.wa.gov/Portals/1/Documents/Pubs/140-073-WAStatePlanForHealthyCommunities.pdf
Public Health Funding
Where does the funding for public health come from?
Public health funding comes from federal sources, state sources, local sources, fees and fines. According to the CDC, “Health departments generally receive the largest percentage of their federal revenue from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), followed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), the Environmental Protection.” (cdc.gov) Partnerships between the government and non-for-profit health care organizations are important and according to Sultz and Young, “ In 2011 not-for-profit organizations received 32 percent of $6 billion distributed by state health agencies through contracts, grants, and awards.” Funding for public health has been and continues to be an issue in the US. Sultz and Young state that less than 3 cents per $1 that is spent on health care goes into public health funding causing a shortage on funding in this health care domain. In the following chart it shows the breakdown of where funds are contributed for all states with a total obligation of $6,134,759,508.

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A closer look at how and where funding comes from can be seen here in this pdf from the CDC website.
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https://www.cdc.gov/publichealthgateway/docs/finance/Public_Health_Financing-6-17-13.pdf
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A World Without Public Health
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A world without public health would result in expensive after-the-fact medical interventions, progressively growing epidemics that could turn to pandemics, higher mortality rate in many areas, and no policy to regulate the environments we live and work in. Many advancements were made during the 2000s that have contributed to lowering the mortality rate for many diseases. According to Sultz and Young, “Many new vaccines were introduced including rotavirus, meningococcal, herpes zoster, pneumococcal, and papillomavirus. A 2011 economic analysis on the use of vaccines reported that vaccination of each U.S. birth cohort using the current childhood immunization schedule prevents approximately 42,000 deaths and 20 million cases of disease, with net cost savings of nearly $14 billion in direct costs and $69 billion in total societal costs.” That is just some things that have happened in our time. Think about the bubonic plague which was also known as the black plague or black death. Public streets were infested with trash and fecal matter due to lack of better ways to dispose of it. If advancements such as plumbing, and trash collection or disposal didn’t exist would the black plague still be an issue today? We can also look at areas of pubic health such as regulating fire arms, the work place, tobacco use and health codes in buildings and restaurants. The mortality rate of gun shot wounds would increase as well as injury and illness due to lack of regulating our environments in which we live and work.
Resources
Bishop, N., Macklin, A., Robelotto, D., Tolchinsky, A., Saka, B., & Waters, R. (n.d.). What is Public Health? Retrieved from https://www.cdcfoundation.org/what-public-health.
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CDC - National Health Initiatives, Strategies, and Action Plans - STLT Gateway. (2018, October 4). Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/publichealthgateway/strategy/index.html.
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Colton, T., Galea, S., & Brooks, D. (n.d.). A World without Public Health: SPH: Boston University. Retrieved from https://www.bu.edu/sph/2016/01/03/a-world-without-public-health/.
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Norc University, An Examination of Public Health Financing in the United States
Final Report, March 2013, https://www.norc.org/PDFs/PH%20Financing%20Report%20-%20Final.pdf
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Prevention and Public Health Fund. (2018, July 13). Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/funding/pphf/index.html.
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Sultz, H. A., & Young, K. M. (2014). Health care Usa: understanding its organization and delivery. Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning.
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The Washington State Plan for Healthy Communities, March 2014, https://www.doh.wa.gov/Portals/1/Documents/Pubs/140-073-WAStatePlanForHealthyCommunities.pdf
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