Discussion Question: #1
Hospital emergency departments continue to be used as a source of primary medical care by large numbers of the community’s medically underserved population. What are the implications of this practice for the patients, and on health care costs and quality of care? What would you propose as a means to change this situation?
Discussion #2
In 1992, medical residency programs in the U.S. were described as “responsive principally to the service needs of hospitals, the interests of the medical specialty societies, the objectives of the residency program directors, and the career preferences of the medical students.” In fact, there are so many more residency programs than can be filled by American medical school graduates, that an annual influx of foreign educated physicians has been required to satisfy the service needs of many hospitals. In addition, until recently, there has been no attempt to match America’s needs for various kinds of specialty and generalist physicians with the hospital-based training programs that were producing them. In light of these facts, pose an opinion on this question:
Few graduates of medical school choose primary care, and instead flock to specialties with greater pay and prestige. Since primary care is the basis for maintaining health and early diagnosis of potential health problems, who should be responsible for rectifying this misplaced emphasis of health care, insurers, medical schools, the government, the AMA, and others?
