HEALTH CARE SERVICES

Health Care Services

Health Care Services

Thesis Statement

Formal health care services have distinctive geographies from the global to the local scales

Description

It is a well observed fact now days that formal health care services have distinctive geographies from the global to the local scales. The geography of health care describes spatial variation in the locations, numbers, and types of services. Health services are often divided into three levels: (1) primary-care services that address routine health needs, (2) more specialized secondary services typically offered in hospital settings, and (3) highly specialized tertiary services provided only in the most advanced hospitals. Of the three, primary services are the most numerous and widely distributed over the landscape. Tertiary services are offered at a limited number of highly specialized hospitals, mainly located in large metropolitan areas.

Annotated Bibliography

First

Branch LG and Jette AM. (1982) A prospective study of long-term care institution among the aged. Am J Public Health. vol. 72 pp. 1373-1379.

There is a growing interest in the geographical dimensions of informal health care—care provided in home and community settings. Worldwide, informal care accounts for the vast majority of health care provision. Geographers have studied where informal care is provided, how changing policies affect informal care, how the places in which people live affect the intensity and quality of informal care, and how people actively create caring environments. The home is a critical setting for provision of informal care. Care is interwoven with social relations within and beyond the home, and it depends on relations of trust and mutual effort. People's experiences of home strongly affect the intensity and outcomes of informal care.

The uneven geographies of health and health care are continually shaped and reshaped by the interactions between people, places, and institutions. Economic, social, and environmental transformations affect people's health by affecting their vulnerabilities and exposures and their access to resources, services, social networks, and health care. Although worldwide health has improved in the past several decades, we are also seeing new kinds of health concerns, new vulnerabilities, and widening health inequalities in many places.

Second

Evashwick C , ed. (2001) The Continuum of Long-Term Care: An Integrated Systems Approach. 2nd ed. Albany, NY: Thomson Delmar Learning.

Health inequalities also exist at the regional scale, often corresponding closely with disparities in class, income, race, and ethnicity. Poor health is strongly associated with economic and social disadvantage: Poverty, lack of education, and social or cultural marginalization increase the risk of ill health. Evidence shows that poor health is tied not only to absolute disadvantage but also to relative disadvantage as reflected in income inequality. Living in a place with a highly unequal income distribution can pose a health risk. Geographic research shows that in places such as the United Kingdom, health inequalities have increased in the past decade, reflecting the widening gap in incomes between the rich and the poor. Strong ties between economic deprivation and health are also evident in large cities in the United States, where we find exceptionally poor health indicators in impoverished inner-city ...