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HTH325 Healthcare Delivery Systems: Your Assignment

Use this guide to find peer reviewed journals for your assignment for Dr. Michael Covone

Compare & Contrast

The health system of the United States with either France, Germany, or Japan.

Students are to find a minimum of four (4) peer-reviewed resources published within the last seven (7) years.  Additional references can exceed the seven (7) year requirement.

Paper criteria includes:
  • Cost of care (include who pays the doctor, hospitals, pharmaceuticals, etc.)
  • Quality of care (i.e., utilization of diagnostic equipment, surgical procedures, life span, infant morbidity, as well as other indicators discussed in the text and my notes this semester.)
  • Access to care (waiting period before a patient can see their doctor, who is covered [birth – death; references the continuum of care])
  • Who pays the healthcare provider?
  • Similar to fee-for-service program or managed care system?
  • Does the system follow a retrospective or prospective payment system?
  • Does the system follow DRG?

Your conclusion should indicate your opinion as to which country provides better healthcare to their citizens. The body of your paper will justify your opinion.

  • What are the benefits/limitations of their healthcare system?
  • What are the quality issues, access to care, and cost of care issues compared to the USA?
  • Is the overall health of this country’s population better or worse compared to the USA?
    Benchmarks can be used, such as:  infant mortality rates, mortality rates for cardiovascular disease, life expectancy for males and females, percentage of people with normal body mass, etc.

Your Assignment, Keywords, and Setting Up a Search Strategy

Use the following sites only to find keywords and phrases that you can then use as search terms when searching for articles and books.

health care (noun):  a set of actions by a person or persons to maintain or improve the health of a patient/consumer

Examples:

  • I have developed a plan for my patient’s health care.
  • A heavier emphasis on preventive health care by patients and providers will improve health outcomes and quality of life.
  • The RNs in this practice provide the majority of the health care for their patients.
  • Special case: hyphenated adjectival form of “health care”
    • Health-care services have become more expensive and more complex over the last 50 years.
    • The health-care needs of the patients in this hospital wing are much higher than the needs of the average patient.

healthcare (noun or adjective):  a system, industry, or field that facilitates the logistics and delivery of health care for patients/consumers

Examples:

  • Noun
    • I hope to work in healthcare one day.
    • Healthcare’s number and diversity of players grew significantly over the course of the twentieth century.
    • Modern healthcare requires both skilled clinicians and savvy, experienced business professionals to be effective and successful.
  • Adjective
    • The healthcare IT industry has been booming as a result of the strong demand for population analytics and effective electronic health record (EHR) systems.
    • Healthcare reform has been a tough but important process to address many of the systematic failures of the healthcare system.
    • Many former Wall Street professionals are moving into healthcare finance as a result of the industry’s massive growth.
  • Use quotation marks around phrases and an asterisk * to truncate a word (except in PubMed):
    • "infant mortality"
    • mortality AND "cardiovascular disease"
    • "life expectancy" AND male* (the * will search for male or males)
    • "life expenctancy" AND female*
    • percentage AND "normal body mass"
    • "health care delivery system*"
    • GDP AND ("health care expenditure*" OR "health care cost*")
    • healthcare AND (benefit* OR limitation*)
      Although the article may talk about these but never mention the words "benefit" or "limitations",  think of some terms that may be a "benefit"  or a "limitation".  e.g., Germany AND "health care insurance" AND "United States"
  • You may have to search separately and then compare two articles, e.g. search "United States" AND "infant mortality" then search for Germany AND "infant morality" and compare.
  • Write out "United States" (do not use US or U.S.)
  • Limit your search by date range.
  • Limit the article's language to English.