Individual Exercise: Module 2

Answer # 1

Comparisons between Health Care System of US and Canada

To compare the performance of health care in relation with other countries of the world, is not the easy task. This issue can be resolved at some degree by reviewing the statistics like infant mortality (deaths in the first year of life), life expectancy perinatal mortality (deaths within seven days of birth). Life expectancy in The United States of America at birth is 71.5 years age for males and 78.3 years of age for females, whereas in Canada 73 years of age for males and 79.7 years age for females. Infant mortality rate in United states of America is 10 percent while in Canada, it is 7.2 percent. Perinatal mortality rate is considered as the best for measuring the medical intervention effect. Perinatal mortality rate in United States of America is 9.7 percent, whereas in Canada perinatal mortality rate is 7.6 percent. What these outcomes show that better health care does not necessarily result from higher expenditures on care. There are also several factors due to which the provision of health care can be analysed. That includes cultural and social conditions, different priorities and economic as well as social status.

Answer # 2

Primary Care

Primary care means the health care services that play a role in the local community. It means the work of health care providers that are the immediate point of consultation for all the individuals that are living within one health care system. Those health care professionals could be a family physician, general practitioner, or a non-physician primary care provider like nurse practitioner or physician assistant. Sometimes patients may get consultation from another health care professional first like pharmacist or a nurse (like in United States of America), a clinical officer (like in some parts of Africa), or an Ayurvedic or other traditional medicine care provider (like in some parts of Asia). Depending on the serious condition of the patient, they may be sent to secondary or tertiary care (Sultz & Young, 2010).

Primary care incorporates the broadest scope of health care, involving patients of all ages, patients having various geographic as well as socioeconomic origins, the patients that require to sustain the adequate heath and the patients having all sort of chronic as well as acute mental, social and physical health problems, like multiple chronic diseases. Subsequently, the primary care provider must be equipped with plenty of knowledge in a vast area.Secondary Care

Secondary Care is provided by the medical professionals that are specialized in particular fields and other health care professionals that do not contact first with the patients like urologists, cardiologists and dermatologists. The secondary care sometimes refers as the hospital care. Although many secondary care providers do not work in the facility of hospital, like clinical psychologists, psychiatrists, physiotherapists or occupational therapists (Sultz & Young, 2010).. Depending on the national health system policies, and on the organization, patients may be needed to consult with the primary care professionalist for referral before accessing the secondary ...