Access to Health Care Services

Part 1

Provision of quality healthcare services is invaluable to the improvement of general population health. As such, many governments have funded numerous research studies with an objective of coming up with the most appropriate strategies of ensuring equitable healthcare. However, despite these efforts, healthcare inequalities form the center stage of healthcare debates. This is because some populations are either sidelines through policy approaches or some other factors come into play thereby limiting access to healthcare services. There are general approaches that if agreed upon and implemented in the most effective manner can help to address the issue. In this regard, the following discussion provides three ideas that can help in improving access, the quality and reducing health care costs.

To start with, provision of policies that are all inclusive can help to address the three aspects of concern. In most cases, healthcare policies are developed without necessarily considering, or getting the views of the affected people. This means that there is a probability that such policies do not address the most pressing concerns. In this case, it is important that the authorities consider community policy approach in order to solve community health needs. According to Aoki, Peters, Platero and Headrick (2017), community policy efforts can help to address the issue of health equity. This means that through this approach, access to healthcare services can be considerably increased.

Part 2

Of more significance, modulating the infrastructure in the healthcare system is also invaluable to cost reduction and improvement of healthcare quality. In this case, the authorities should ensure that appropriate tools of work and resources are provided to the healthcare institutions.  A study conducted by Dzau et al. (2017) revealed that infrastructural needs have been pointed in various incidences, indicating the criticality of addressing them in order to improve the quality of healthcare services. More importantly, infrastructural needs also require addressing the skills gap among the healthcare providers.

Lastly, embracing the use of technology in healthcare service provision will also help to improve accessibility. In particular, because of industrialization and technological development, many people have been engrossed in economic activity, therefore not prioritizing their healthcare needs. As such, understanding the best approach, through the technological platforms, to target particular group of people can help to increase access to care services (Virginia Mason Institute, 2016). In addition, it is possible to use modern technology for personal (but simple) medical examination processes.

Conclusion

In conclusion, addressing the issues associated with improving access, the quality and reducing health care costs is invaluable to improving healthcare outcomes. From the above discussion, it is evident that through policy strategies, modulation of healthcare infrastructure and embracing the technology, it is possible address the issues effectively.  More importantly, the three options require that the target population is involved in the decision making process.