Chapter 5: Health Care Approach

Chapter 5: Health Care Approach

• Healthcare is essential in modern society, with various approaches used by providers.
• Health is a fundamental human right.
• Health care is a multitude of services to individuals or communities to promote, maintain, monitor or restore health.
• Health care involves the maintenance or improvement of health through prevention, diagnosis, treatment, recovery or cure of disease, illness, injury.
• Providing health care requires a system and safe systems. This requires legislation.

Levels of Health Care

• A hierarchical pyramid structure exists for health care.
• Tertiary Health Care (THC) involves super-speciality medical institutes, District hospitals.
• Secondary Health Care (SHC) involves District Hospitals , Sub-Centers (SC), Primary Health Centers (PHC), Community Health Centres (CHC).
• Primary Health Care (PHC) includes preventive care, health promotion, treatment of common illnesses and injuries.

Primary Health Care

• PHC is the initial point of contact for medical care.
• It is focused on basic medical care for individuals and communities.
• PHC services include preventive care (vaccinations, screenings), health promotion and education, treatment of common illnesses and injuries, referral to specialized care when necessary.
• PHC is crucial because it's often the most accessible and affordable form of care.
• PHC goes to the home and family level to reach everyone, particularly those in need.

Secondary Health Care

• Secondary healthcare is provided by medical specialists.
• It's focused on diagnosis and treatment of complex conditions requiring specialized care.
• Secondary healthcare includes diagnostic tests & procedures, surgery, treatment of chronic conditions, rehabilitation services.
• Secondary care is important for patients needing complex medical interventions.

Tertiary Health Care

• Tertiary healthcare is the highest level of specialized care from specialized hospitals or medical centres.
• It focuses on advanced medical care for complex and rare medical conditions.
• Services include highly specialized procedures and interventions, transplant services, treatment of rare conditions.
• Tertiary care is crucial for patients requiring the most advanced medical interventions.

Medical Approach

• This approach focuses on reducing morbidity and mortality.
• Activities focus on whole populations or high-risk groups to prevent disease and premature death.
• Healthcare providers employ various strategies to treat medical conditions.

Types of Medical Approaches

• Conventional medicine: Also known as allopathic medicine, it's the most common type. It's based on scientific method, research, clinical trials. It uses pharmaceuticals, surgery, medical procedures for illness and disease. It also uses tests such as blood tests, X-rays, and CT scans. It prioritizes prevention, vaccinations, and health screenings to prevent the onset of disease.

• Effective but can have limitations, focusing sometimes on symptoms rather than underlying issues and can have side effects from medications.

• Alternative medicine: Treatment used as an alternative to conventional medicine. It refers to a variety of medical practices and treatments that aren't part of formal conventional medicine, including herbal remedies, acupuncture, massage therapy, chiropractic and homeopathy. It's based on traditional healing practices.

• Practitioners often emphasize a holistic approach to health, taking into account the patient's physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being. It's used to prevent and manage symptoms, and for overall wellness. It should not be used as a substitute for conventional medical treatment and varies in its scientific validation.

• Complementary medicine: Treatments used alongside conventional medicine, rather than instead of it. Includes natural products (herbs, vitamins, minerals, probiotics, dietary supplements), mind and body practices (massage therapy, chiropractic, acupuncture).

• Important to inform the health care provider about using natural products for safety.

• Integrative medicine: Combines conventional care with complementary. It prioritizes the whole person and addresses body, mind, and spirit. It emphasizes prevention and lifestyle changes and is often used to treat chronic conditions.