Career in Healthcare Administration
If doctors and nurses are the first things that come to mind when you think of a career in healthcare, you need to think again. Doctors and nurses, while vital to the medical community, still need a host of trained and experienced professionals working behind the scenes to ensure the smooth running of hospitals, clinics and other medical facilities. Organizations can run smoothly only with the help and expertise of managers and administrators who plan and supervise the day to day running and maintain the quality of services offered. The field of medicine is constantly being developed and re-invented through technological and scientific breakthroughs. Professionals in healthcare administration therefore need to be up to date with cutting edge technology and the changes inherent in such an industry.
Healthcare services as a career is poised to grow exponentially over the next decade or so. With 3.5 million jobs projected, healthcare is the fastest growing industry in the U.S. today. For students in high school interested in a career in healthcare administration, include courses in Math, English, Science, and Social Sciences. A foreign language such as Spanish could also work to your advantage. Entry-level positions in healthcare administration require a minimum of a Bachelor’s degree. For a higher-level job or greater earning potential, you could follow up with a Master’s degree as well. Most Bachelor’s degrees in healthcare administration cover basic theory and an overview of the healthcare industry. Also included in the curriculum is the development of skills such as financial management, leadership skills, business planning skills, and statistical analysis. A good healthcare degree program equips students with knowledge about economics, law, legal and ethical concepts, and the organizational structure in the medical community. Students may be encouraged to volunteer and garner work experience and internship positions at local healthcare centers as part of their degree program.
If you choose a career in healthcare administration, you are assured of making a significant contribution to community health. There are several job options in this field that you can choose from such as administrative positions in hospitals, nursing homes, private clinics, healthcare agencies, insurance companies, and even HMOs. Entry-level positions include health provider representative, accountants, marketing assistants, and project managers and consultants. Mid-level jobs could include positions such as department managers, contract negotiators, case managers, and marketing directors while senior-level positions include Chief Executive Officers, Chief Operating Officers, Chief Financial Officers and Vice-Presidents of various departments and services. With a health care administration degree, you could be handling a diverse range of responsibilities that include human resources, marketing, staff relations, planning, development, patient care services, government relations, and information systems. You will be on call and your services will be required to solve problems, make critical choices and delegate and supervise a staff that could number in the hundreds. As you can see, healthcare administration covers a large area and what you do will ultimately depend on the size and type of the medical facility that employs you. Salaries are competitive but work schedules may be a bit demanding as most hospitals work 24/7. To be successful in this field demands a combination of communication skills, negotiating power, analysis of information and the ability to thrive under stress. If you feel this applies to you, then a career in healthcare administration may be exactly what you are looking for.
MichaelB
http://www.articlesbase.com/college-and-university-articles/career-in-healthcare-administration-1290941.html
Categories: Healthcare Tags: blog, health, Healthcare, medical
Malpractice Lawyers Identify New Occurrences of Medical Malpractice
If you have ever been admitted into a hospital without knowing your fate, chances are that you were probably worried, scared, and curious as to the outcome of your stay. Millions of people everyday visit the hospital for an unknown illness hopefully to figure out what is the cause of their ailing health. In many instances insurance is a big concern for those who cannot afford it due to the high cost of health care. Many people think that their health care is going to be compromised if they don’t have the proper credentials for their health issues. In other instances people are frightened that an act of medical malpractice can and will occur due to the lack of proper medical professionals in hospitals nationwide. Malpractice lawyers have seen an increase in the rate of medical malpractice in recent years due to inexperienced doctors, lack of technical equipments, and lack of insurance. Medical malpractice has been causing concern with the masses as we see more and more instances of severe acts happening on a daily basis. Horror stories of surgical tools being left in a patient’s body after surgery has the public scared to undergo any type of treatment. If you or a loved one has been directly affected by an act of medical malpractice, contact a malpractice lawyer as soon as possible.
Another pressing issue dealing with medical malpractice is illegal kickbacks to doctors. Pharmaceutical companies play a big role in the occurrence of medical malpractice despite their efforts to act as a contributor to standard healthcare practices. Pharmaceutical companies rely heavily on hospitals and general practitioners to recommend products to their patients. These products include prescription drugs, medical devices, medical tools and other related products. Sometimes generic drugs are available to comparable brand name drugs that make it hard for large pharmaceutical companies to maintain their profits. In order to hold on to their market share, large pharmaceutical giants sometimes offer doctors and hospital administrator incentives to solely recommend their products to their patients. In doing this pharmaceutical companies are ensuring that they will receive increased and constant profits. These illegal kickbacks can take the form of excessive gifts, meals, trips, and cash that try to sway doctors to recommend these products. This is a very dangerous practice because doctors can get so caught up with receiving these incentives that they may compromise their patients general health. Instance of medical malpractice occur when a doctor recommends a drug that might be detrimental to a patients health. Usually doctors will prescribe medications that will generally pose no short-term effects, but long-term effects are a different story. Medical malpractice lawyers are seeing this type of practice happen commonly and provide a case for a medical malpractice lawsuit.
If you or a loved on has been negatively affected by a medication that was prescribed to you based on a doctor trying to gain incentives from a pharmaceutical company, contact a malpractice lawyer immediately. A malpractice lawyer will be able to stand up for you in a court of law and start your path to justice.
Paul Justice
http://www.articlesbase.com/national,-state,-local-articles/malpractice-lawyers-identify-new-occurrences-of-medical-malpractice-698719.html
Categories: Medical Practice Tags: blog, health, Healthcare, medical
Do You Know About These Green Tea Health Benefits?
Green tea benefits the heart, the circulatory system, the brain, the metabolism, the digestive system and, because of its antioxidant content, all of the cells of the body. Are green tea health benefits overstated? In some cases, the answer is “yes”.
Green tea benefits were first examined because of something called the “Japanese paradox”. It’s a little like the French paradox. Most health experts believe that people who consume large amounts of dietary fat and/or smoke cigarettes are more likely to develop heart disease and cancer. But the incidence of heart disease is low in the French, even though the traditional diet is high in fat. The incidence of heart disease, as well as stomach and throat cancer is low in the Japanese, even among smokers.
After several studies, researchers stated that one of the possible green tea health benefits was a reduced risk of stomach and throat cancer, primarily because the study participants drank a liter or more of green tea every day. After studying French populations, researchers found an antioxidant in red wine called resveratrol. They said that the antioxidant may reduce the risk of heart disease, among other things.
If we combine green tea health benefits with those of resveratrol, we might be able to lengthen our life-spans. Researchers arrived at this conclusion after feeding resveratrol to fish that normally lived for only nine weeks. After dosing a group of the fish with resveratrol, they lived an average of 56% longer than the group that did not receive the supplement. Of course, whether it has the same effect on humans remains to be seen.
If you really want to lengthen your lifespan, you need more than antioxidants. They are a good place to start, because they fight free radical damage, but they do nothing to counter glycation, a complex process caused by sugar molecules binding to protein within the human body. This binding causes a cascade of reactions that lead to the formation of advance glycation end-products or AGEs. The term AGE is appropriate, because these molecules have been implicated in Alzheimer’s, type II diabetes, heart disease, deafness, blindness, cancer and other “age” related diseases.
The green tea benefits cannot prevent glycation, but L-carnosine supplements can. If we combine the green tea health benefits with those of resveratrol and carnosine, we may actually get somewhere in preventing chronic diseases and extending our lives. But, you won’t find supplements that contain all three of these things on your pharmacy’s shelves. You might not even be able to get the green tea benefits, as they are promised.
We have to find a good manufacturer that knows what it takes to make an effective supplement. The long-term green tea health benefits may never be seen, so it’s difficult to know if a supplement of that type is working.
But, if you buy the best supplement, there are some changes that will be noticeable, almost immediately. Now that you know a little more about the green tea benefits, you might want to learn more about the best supplements on the market, today. If you have a few minutes to spare, please take a look at my website now.
Gordon Hall
http://www.articlesbase.com/supplements-and-vitamins-articles/do-you-know-about-these-green-tea-health-benefits-713171.html
Categories: Heart Health Tags: blog, health, Healthcare, medical
Information about heart health after the age of 50?
I need information about heart issues when your past/around the age of 50, and how you can take care of yourself and your heart. Anything about diets, excersise, stress levels, all of that would be useful
Information for both men and women are needed
Any websites, or facts given are greatly appreciated, i need this for my parents =)
A healthy diet and lifestyle are your best weapons to fight cardiovascular disease. It’s not as hard as you may think! Remember, it’s the overall pattern of your choices that counts.
Start by knowing how many calories you should be eating and drinking to maintain your weight. Don’t eat more calories than you know you can burn up every day. Increase the amount and intensity of your physical activity to match the number of calories you take in. Aim for at least 30 minutes of moderate physical activity on most days of the week or — best of all — at least 30 minutes every day. Regular physical activity can help you maintain your weight, keep off weight that you lose and help you reach physical and cardiovascular fitness.
Vegetables and fruits are high in vitamins, minerals and fiber — and they’re low in calories. Eating a variety of fruits and vegetables may help you control your weight and your blood pressure.
Unrefined whole-grain foods contain fiber that can help lower your blood cholesterol and help you feel full, which may help you manage your weight.
Eat fish at least twice a week. Recent research shows that eating oily fish containing omega-3 fatty acids (for example, salmon, trout, and herring) may help lower your risk of death from coronary artery disease.
Choose lean meats and poultry without skin and prepare them without added saturated and trans fat.
Select fat-free, 1 percent fat, and low-fat dairy products.
Cut back on foods containing partially hydrogenated vegetable oils to reduce trans fat in your diet.
Cut back on foods high in dietary cholesterol. Aim to eat less than 300 milligrams of cholesterol each day.
Cut back on beverages and foods with added sugars.
Choose and prepare foods with little or no salt. Aim to eat less than 2,300 milligrams of sodium per day.
If you drink alcohol, drink in moderation. That means one drink per day if you’re a woman and two drinks per day if you’re a man.
Follow the American Heart Association recommendations when you eat out, and keep an eye on your portion sizes.
Categories: Heart Health Tags: blog, health, Healthcare, medical
Why does healthcare in the United States rank 37th in the world?
I would expect it to be in the top 15. Costa Rica and Chile have better healthcare than the US, and there 2nd world countries. Hospitals and medical facilities in the US use some of the most modern equipment. I know a lot of Americans are uninsured, is that why? And also when the world health organization rates countries healthcare system, what do they base it on?
They base it on average life expectancy, percentage of newborns that survive, and a number of other factors. The health care system in the United States is so bad because of insurance companies. Insurance companies aren’t created to help people, they’re created to make money. Medco, Cigna, and all those other health insurance companies are businesses. They’re goal is to make as much money as possible, and to spend as little as possible. Most other countries have nationalized health insurance. You basically pay a tax, and everything is free. When Bill Clinton was president, Hillary proposed the idea, but all those lobbyists for those health insurance companies freaked out because they want to continue to make their money. Health insurance companies give money to senators who oppose the idea of nationalized health insurance. They basically bribe them.
Categories: Healthcare Tags: blog, health, Healthcare, medical
Top 5 Reasons Why There Is A Medical Collection Problem
Over the years there has been a marked increase in medical collection problems. A recent controversial case involves an attempt by the Aargon Collection Agency to recover more than half a billion dollars written off as bad debts by UMC. According to news reports, UMC sold their half a billion worth of bad debts to a third party called Orion Portfolio for $8.5 million. Orion in turn hired Aargon, a professional collections agency, to collect the debts from the patients. The controversy has since generated threats of a class suit, multitudes of complaints and a closer examination of the medical collection practice.
The heart of the problem, as pointed out by experts and former patients, is the ineffectual billing practices of UMC and other hospitals. In the case of UMC, the hospital failed to bill the insurance and HMO companies of their former patients. To make matters worse, they included these neglected bills with their bad debts which they sold to a third party.
Another reason for the growing medical collection problem is the ambiguity of the coverage of certain insurance and HMO policies. Clients take out a policy not having a clear understanding of their coverage. This lack of understanding can be attributed to the clients’ negligence, over zealousness of the agent to make a sale or both.
A third reason is in the hierarchy of bills, medical bills are most like to take the backseat in the face of mortgage, auto, credit card and utility bills.
A fourth reason is that medical collection records appear only on reports requested by the debtor for his or her personal record. Credit reports sold to third parties mask or block medical collection history. This protects the debtor against discrimination based on his or her medical condition. At the same time, it serves as a disincentive for the debtor to satisfy the debt.
A fifth and perhaps most obvious reason for medical collection problems is poverty due to unemployment or underemployment. Medical care costs are at an all-time high and can be extremely prohibitive to a minimum wage earner. Coupled with the reality that most unemployed or underemployed patients do not have HMOs or if they do, they have limited coverage; it is no wonder that these patients, if they do receive treatment, are not in a position to pay even if they wanted to.
The rise in medical collection problems can be attributed to several factors within the medical and insurance/HMO industry. The current employment and poverty levels play key roles as well. Then there is the questionable practice of selling bad debts to third parties at a discounted rate. In this light, it seems no longer important to point a finger to the party at fault since no single party can be said to be solely responsible for the problem.
Tristan Andrews
http://www.articlesbase.com/finance-articles/top-5-reasons-why-there-is-a-medical-collection-problem-100242.html
Categories: Medical Practice Tags: blog, health, Healthcare, medical