Perspective on Health Care
Nicole Asta HCS/212 January 14, 2013
Patricia Wolcott

Perspective on Health Care
I’ll be honest the main reason I got interested in healthcare was because I have been obsessed with ER all my life. George Clooney was my dream doctor, and he still is today. But as I grew older and relised that my day dreams may never come true, I still remained interested in healthcare. However, I did make the critical reaslation that I detest blood and anything to do with it. However, I still enjoy learning and working in the healthcare field, on the technological side. I how that when I achieve my degree that I will be able to work some day in the CDC.
In that regards, what I have always found most interesting, in the history of health care, is the development of the vaccinations and other for diseases. I also am interested in programs like the Center for the Control of Disease and Prevention (CDC) which was founded in 1946. As well as hospice programs, I am currently volunteering at a local hospice and enjoy it very much. As for the vaccinations, what interested was a long term interest in personal health. I have always been a rather healthy person, and rarely ever do I get sick. So when I did, I always wanted to know why I was sick. I read quite a bit about different illness and what was being done to prevent them. I would always read about the early 19th and 20th centuries. About, how many people died from contaminated water and food, inadequate living situations and sewage disposal. How doctors and nurse pioneer our modern standard of living, and how vaccinations for many deadly diseases has all but wiped them from the face of the planet. The biggest impact in my mind though is with better disposing of sewage and safeguarding our food has also helped with the decrease of morality. But we are now entering a new era where there are new causes for death, like accidents and the lack of the taking care of themselves such as poor dieting, lack of exercise.

What areas of health care are you interested in pursuing? Why? The areas of health care that am interested in pursuing are mostly technology based. I am procuring my Bachelor of Science in Health Administration with a concentration in Health Information Systems, at Phoenix. I really would like to get in to the health information technology sector. Health information technology, a health IT, enables healthcare providers to improve patient care by using a secure network to share a patient’s health information with others as authorized by the patient. The use of electronic health records (EHRs) constitutes health IT as opposed to paper medical records to retain people's health information (US Dept of Health, 2010). In addition, health IT’s allows a secure exchange between healthcare providers and consumers in the management of healthcare information. I hope that as a health IT I will both improve patient care and our nation’s healthcare system. There are two classifications of electronic health record systems. First, there are products like Microsoft Vault and Google Health, allow an individual person to store their health records online. It is the sole responsibility of the individual to keep current and maintain the records. They are also responsible to ensure they maintain a secure password to maintain the confidentiality of their patient records. Secondly, institutions such as hospitals and doctor clinics have the ability to store all your records electronically, if they have the correct software and hardware. It is important to understand the records stored by the institution cannot be shared across institutions. And this will likely change in the future and test programs are currently being piloted.
Present day electronic health record is part of decades of effort put forth to digitizing health records. However, the goal, to compile patient medical history so it can be readily viewed and managed in one place is yet to be fully realized. The mandate as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, states that all records most is online by 2014.
Demographic Indicators Of all the indicators about health out there the ones I find the most interesting are the ones about higher education and personal health. According to the Southern poverty law center, better educated people lower rates of death for all types of diseases. And while the life expectancy is increasing in the United States, there are still differences in life expectancy between those with a college degree, and those without one. Research done by the center shows the education levels alone cannot be the reason between the life expectancy rates. It is believed that education influences forces that are complex and are likely to include; relationships, demographic and background factors, greater resources, good health behaviors, and a person’s social network. (http://npc.umich.edu/research/)
Resources
There are a number of additional resources any one can use to find about the history of health care in the United States. I would first suggest searching on the web. The CDC website and other government websites are a great place to start looking. And there is your local library, if you have trouble finding anything just ask your librarian to help you.