Health Care Systems and Patient Relationships

Types of Health Care Services

• Health care services can be categorized into specialized functions, with different practitioners offering unique expertise for various aspects of treatment.
• Office-based treatment involves screening and treating minor illnesses, while inpatient treatment is for those with serious illnesses requiring special medical attention and complex equipment.
• Hospitals provide a range of services, including emergency care, diagnostic testing, curative treatment, rehabilitation, and social services.
• Nursing homes cater to individuals who need long-term medical and personal care, often including the elderly, handicapped, and those requiring assistance with daily activities.

Using and Misusing Health Services

• Demographic factors influence the use of health services, with young children and the elderly having more frequent contact with physicians.
• Sociocultural factors, such as family income, also impact health service utilization, with people from lower-income backgrounds more likely to use outpatient clinics and hospital emergency rooms.
• Non-users of health services are often from lower socioeconomic classes, minority groups, and include males, adolescents, and early adults.
• The reasons for poor health maintenance among low socioeconomic classes include a lack of awareness, access, and affordability of health services.
• Iatrogenic conditions, adverse conditions induced by medical interventions, can influence people's decisions to use health services.
• The health belief model proposes that individuals assess the perceived threat of a symptom, perceived benefits, and perceived barriers to determine whether to seek medical care.
• Social and emotional factors, such as strong emotional reactions to symptoms, can also influence the decision to seek medical care.

The Patient-Practitioner Relationship

• Patients prefer to participate in their medical care, seeking to be involved in decision-making and informed about their illness and treatment.
• Practitioners' behavior and style can impact the patient-practitioner relationship, with a "doctor-centered" approach potentially creating miscommunication and confusion.
• Patients' behavior and style can also affect the relationship, with some patients exhibiting critical, angry, or non-compliant behavior.
• Effective communication is essential for a positive patient-practitioner relationship, influencing patient satisfaction and adherence to medical advice.

Compliance: Adhering to Medical Advice

• Adherence to medical advice refers to the degree to which patients follow recommended treatments and behaviors.
• Non-adherence can occur for various reasons, including the complexity, duration, cost, and side effects of medical regimens.
• Demographic factors, such as age, can influence adherence, with younger patients potentially being less adherent than older patients.
• Psychosocial factors, including perceived costs and benefits, perceived seriousness, and cognitive and emotional factors, can also impact adherence.
• Patient-practitioner interactions, including communication and relationship quality, can influence adherence, as can socio-cultural factors, such as cultural norms and illness beliefs.

Increasing Patient Adherence

• Not provided in the original text.