Facility Spectrum

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HCS/457

Facility Spectrum

Many people think of a hospital or a clinic upon hearing the words health care facility and they are not wrong. However, along with hospitals and clinics, there are other types of facilities that also classify as a health care facility in the United States. These health care facilities have similar purposes of their own, but their primary goal is the same, the patient.

The hospital, for example, is a health care facility that performs urgent care, inpatient and outpatient services. Flavin (2018), “hospitals are the ultimate “catch-all” healthcare facility” (14 Types of Healthcare Facilities Where Medical Professionals Provide Care). The primary objective and goal of hospital services is to save lives by performing to improve outcomes while ensuring quality care, patient safety and satisfaction. The board directors of the hospital are responsible for the hospital’s oversight. Urgent Care centers are another type of health care facility in the United States in which its goal and objective is to assist patients in need of immediate care but are not severe enough to have to be admitted into a hospital. Urgent care centers operations are managed by a Chief Executive Officer but are overseen by the Urgent Care Association Board of Directors (“Urgent Care Association”, 2019). Another type of health care facility are ambulatory surgical centers. Ambulatory surgical centers are facilities where patients will go to have certain surgical procedures instead of getting it done in a hospital. This type of facility is convenient for some patients as it is an outpatient facility and is also less expensive than surgeries in a hospital. The main purpose of an ambulatory surgical facility is to perform surgeries while maintaining the patient’s safety and comfortability.

Birth centers are health care facilities that solely focus on treating pregnant women while providing an environment where the patient feels more relaxed. Clinics and medical offices are well known health care facilities around the United States. Some clinics or medical offices are for family medicine or general medicine and others might be for a specialized practice. Although they might be different in generalization, their objectives are to check, diagnose or treat patients. One health care facility that most do not think of are blood banks. Blood banks are a type of health care facility and they work to receive and store and sort blood from donors to be able to assist patients who need it. Another type of healthcare facility are dialysis centers in which are treatment centers where health care professionals work to help patients with kidney disease. Hospice homes are health care facilities for patients that are near death and their main goal is to assist them and ensure they are as comfortable as possible by providing medical, emotional and spiritual support for the patients and their families. Nursing homes on the other hand, are live-in health care facilities for elderly individuals that need medical attention but not serious enough to be hospitalized. Mental health or addiction, or rehabilitation treatment centers are offered as both inpatient or outpatient depending on the severity of the individuals need and their primary purpose is to provide treatment to improve the individuals issue.

Even though there are various types of health care facilities in the United States, they all have one main objective and that is the patient. The “Centers for Disease Control and Prevention” (2015) website stated that the approach necessary for protecting patients is known as the coordinated approach. With a coordinated approach, the main purpose is for the health care facilities and public health officials to share all necessary information in order to collect all data and create actions to prevent diseases and improve the overall health care settings. When facilities work together they ensure that patients are being treated with the highest quality of care possible while improving outcomes and maintain patient safety and satisfaction. The similarities between the different types of health care facilities is that they all work to improve the quality of care a patient needs to improve their health or well-being. Some of the differences are that some of these facilities are considered inpatient facilities while others are outpatient facilities, and some may be short-term care facilities while others are long-term care facilities.

Having a vast variety of different types of health care facilities to choose from can have a significant impact on quality health care. Using a coordinated approach and working together, these health care facilities will be able to accomplish their purposes and save the lives of many people. Health care professionals will be able to improve diagnosis, treatment and also prevention while spreading information to educate the communities by working together.

References

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2015). Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/vitalsigns/stop-spread/infographic.html

Flavin, B. (2018). Rasmussen College. Retrieved from https://www.rasmussen.edu/degrees/health-sciences/blog/types-of-healthcare-facilities/

Urgent Care Association (2019). Retrieved from https://www.ucaoa.org/About-UCA