Health care policy/system

Policy makers, practitioners, and scholars from a variety of disciplines have recently embraced a new approach to risk reduction in health care—a "systems approach"—without proposing any specific reforms of medical liability law. The Institute of Medicine (IOM) placed its imprimatur on this approach in its recent reports (Kohn et al., 2000 IOM, 2001). In its simplest form, a systems approach to risk reduction in health care posits that an injury to a patient is often the manifestation of a latent error in the system of providing care. In other words, a medical mishap is the proverbial "accident waiting to happen" because the injury-preventing tools currently deployed, including medical liability law, are aimed at finding the individuals at fault rather than the systemic causes of error. Coexistence of a systems approach to error reduction and medical liability law as a conceptual framework for policy makers implies that the latter is likely to evolve in an incremental fashion as the former makes more visible different aspects of the medical error problem. 

About the Authors Dr. Farmer is Associate Professor of Pharmacy Administration at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center College of Pharmacy. He received a B.S. in pharmacy and Ph.D. in pharmaceutical sciences from the University of Missouri-Kansas City. Dr. Farmer has experience in retail and hospital pharmacy practice settings and marketing research in the pharmaceutical industry. He teaches courses in U.S. health care systems and policy, financial management, and pharmaceutical marketing. Dr. Farmer s research is focused on issues related to medication adherence and health and economic consequences of health and medication health care policies. 

In the U.S., there has been considerable change in the practice of pharmacy over the last 150 years. At key points during the profession, seminal events within health care policy and e U.S. health care system forced change within the field of pharmacy practice. However, few of fhese insfances for change were initiated from wilhin the profession. The pharmacy profession has seen... 

Additional health policy research includes the impact of mass casualty events and disasters on the financial health of health care delivery systems. For example, during the events of 9/11 in New York Gity, many... 

It is critical that the reader be sensitive to these contextual variables to understand the American health care system and how health care policy is shaped and implemented in the United States. 

This has stimulated increased scientific study on plants and increased the interest in the validation of traditional medicines and the role that they could play in modem health care systems. The increased public sector pressures to address poverty, illness and disease may give rise to governments recognition that pubhc health care policies and research need to be more inclusive of plants and natural products as vehicles to provide affordable health and nutrition to their citizens in ways that still assure safety and efficacy. 

Medical Device Manufacturers Association (MDMA). 1900 K Street, N.W. Suite 300, Washington, DC 20006, U.S.A. Phone +1 202-496-7150. E-mail mdmainfo medicaldevices.org. URL http //www.medicaldevices.org. National trade association representing independent manufacturers of medical devices, diagnostic products, and health-care information systems. Its stated mission is to promote public health and improve patient care through the advocacy of innovative, research-driven medical device technology, and to this end is proactive in trying to influence policy that impacts medical... 

AHCPR —Agency for Health Care Policy and DIS —Drug Information System... 

The chapter is organized to demonstrate the close interconnections between industrial and health improvement in recent Ethiopian experience. After an overview of the stages of pharmaceutical industrial development in Ethiopia over the last 50 years, the chapter turns to an examination of the context and framework of Ethiopian health policies and the supply of medicines, describing the importance of medicines demand for the industry and industrial supply for health sector development. We describe how the health sector development programme is linked to the provision of essential medicines in the primary health care (PHC) system of the country, and the government s social responsibility in providing medicines to the population. 

VRE) may colonize hospitalized patients or patients who access the health care system frequently. It is key to know which patients have acquired these organisms because patients generally become colonized prior to developing infection, and colonized patients should be placed in isolation (per infection-control policies) to minimize transmission to other patients. 

It seems likely that in the future we will need to tackle health problems from an angle that has more in common with the idea of a social insurance system. System for a better interlocking of ultimate objectives and health care services between public and private actors, and between different public actors, all politically legitimated throughout the territory, and for their better coordination, crucial for the success of ary health policy. Insurance because of the inescapable nature of the idea of specifying levels of health care coverage and... 

Danzon, P. and A. Towse, "The Genomic Revolution Is The Real Risk Underinvestment Rather Than Bankrupt Health Care Systems " /. Hlth. Serv. Res. Policy, 5 (4), 253-255 (2000). 

Policy Integrate TM/CAM with national health care systems, as appropriate, by developing and implementing national TM/CAM policies and programs... 

The precise role of economic evaluation varies among countries. In the vast majority of jurisdictions the role is confined to decisions about pharmaceuticals only, although the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) in the United Kingdom also considers devices, medical procedures, and public health interventions. Even among those countries considering only pharmaceuticals, there are variations in policy. In some, all new pharmaceuticals are considered, whereas in others only those drugs having a premium price, or likely to have a major impact on the health care system, are evaluated. 

About the Author Dr. West is an Associate Professor at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences College of Pharmacy. She received a B.S. in pharmacy and a Ph.D. in pharmacy administration from the University of Mississippi. She coordinates the community pharmacy management course and teaches pharmaceutical policy in the health care system. Dr. West serves as a pharmacy consultant for the Arkansas Foundation for Medical Care and the Arkansas State Employee Insurance Group and is the faculty liaison for the National Community Pharmacists Association student chapter. Her research interests pertain to understanding provider and patient behavior to improve medication use and advance community practice. 

Health policy and professional responsibilities have changed during the years since DUR was introduced into the health care system. To maintain accreditation, hospitals and health care systems are bmmd to conduct MUE/ DUE programs. In the retail setting, the Omnibus Reconciliation Act of 1990... 

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