Health Assurance Research Articles

Challenges in Medical Surveillance for Hazardous Waste Workers

Abstract Because of the unique nature of hazardous waste operations and as a result of federal Hazardous Waste Operations and Emergency Response (HAZWOPER) regulations, medical surveillance has become an integral component of employee health assurance programs in this industry. Considerable resources may be dedicated to achieving a variety of medical surveillance objectives, including the determination of fitness for duty, documentation of base line health status, periodic health assessment, epidemiologic research, and documentation of termination health status. However, if programs are not properly designed and administered, the data collected could prove to be not only costly but ineffective in meeting objectives or even counterproductive. There are numerous challenges in program design, data collection, and data evaluation for health and safety personnel involved in the implementation of medical surveillance. Demographics and other characteristics of the workforce; the nature of physical, chemical, and...

Risks from chemicals in food: C.E. Fisher discusses risks and hazards from a UK perspective

Irrespective of their roles in connection with the regulation and sponsorship of particular industries and in commerce, government departments and industries have a responsibility to ensure that activities in all sectors of the economy are carried out with due regard to the safety of consumers, of the work force and of the public in general. The food sector is no exception to this general rule and the assurance of public health and safety should be a key concern of all parties involved in food supply. Consumer safety can only be assured by the effective management of the hazards and risks identified. Both governments and the food industries have key roles to play in the assessment of diet-related risk and its management.

Cardiovascular care of the elderly: Economic considerations

Escalating costs of medical care have stimulated dramatic changes in the organization and financing of health care in the United States. Prospective payment for hospitalizations, the growth of Health Maintenance Organizations, increased emphasis on fee schedules and salaried arrangements to reimburse physicians and trends toward increased use of ambulatory services, day surgery and home care services are some of the manifestations of change. Priorities for health care are being reconsidered, and the prospects for future rationing of medical services are real. This environment creates important opportunities, as well as challenges, for the practicing physician and for organized medicine, including the American College of Cardiology. On the one hand, it provides a stimulus to the medical profession to reassess the traditional norms of medical practice'and to consider seriouslyhow cost control can be achieved without adverse effects on the quality of care. On the other hand, it creates incentives for constructive dialogue among physicians, policymakers and the general public to shape the direction of change toward an optimal balance between individual and societal priorities. The overriding obligation of the physician is to protect the interests of the patient. Fundamental to fulfilling this obligation are preservation of to quality health care and assurance that neither nor quality will be compromised by considerations of age or of the ability to pay for health care. To put this guiding principle into operation, we need definitions of the best interests of the patient, reasonable access and high quality. Moreover, arguments that more is better have to be supported by convincing evidence that the costs of health care are warranted in terms of the health benefits achieved. Considerable common ground exists among policymakers, physicians and the general public. This ground has to be carefully explored and creatively tilled.

Quality Health Assurance: A Note from the King's Fund

Quality Health Assurance: A Note from the King's Fund

Human Factors Challenge in Energy—An Overview

H. Hollister, Director of the Office of Organizational and Environmental Safety, in his plenary-address describes the Department of Energy (DOE) complex and makes reference to the need for human factors support. In an attempt to improve understanding in the human factors community and to promote communication in this new field of energy, a review of DOE programs and facilities is described. A basic identification of broad requirements, needs or program improvements is stated based on a comprehensive field survey. Human Factors activities are described ranging from training and analysis underway for some time (Management Oversight and Risk Tree-MORT and Accident/Incident Investigation) to Sandia Laboratories contributions in planning and implementation of an Environment, Health, and Safety Assurance Program. Human Factors has picked up the challenge and has taken a major role toward future improvements in an already very safe industry.

Improving Access to Health Care

Dr. Haggerty's commentary "Who Will Monitor Access?" (Pediatrics 57:169, February 1976) raises a question which the Medicaid program in New York State is making a valiant effort to answer through CHAP. CHAP stands for Child Health Assurance Program and is the State Department of Social Services' implementation of EPSDT. The Social Services District of each of the 56 counties in the state must, as part of CHAP, have provision not only to interview the parent of each eligible child at least every six months to offer and arrange for initial and periodic health supervision, but also to followup those who are found to need further diagnosis and treatment.

A Management Approach to Monitoring Quality Health Assurance Standards

AN ALL-PERVASIVE phenomenon within the health bureaucracy centers around the setting, cataloging, and monitoring of quality assurance standards for health care services. For lack of a better definition, standards can be defined as agreed upon set values-the degree of compliance with these values is intended to influence and to assist in indirectly assessing progress towards (or away from) reaching stated objectives; that is, it is agreed that if the standards are met in a proportion of cases, the probability is greater that the objectives will be reached. In the present context, the objective is usually couched in terms of providing health care of quality, often through improving the efficiency or effectiveness of delivery of health services. Attempting to define the best, valid, minimal, and optimal standards appears to consume the majority of the health bureaucrats' efforts. In an attempt to insure that the or most valid standards are set, considerable discussion is often generated concerning the latest and scientific or health evaluation studies. Although such an undertaking might well be justified, I must occasionally adjust my microscope from high dry to scanning in order to comprehend the relevance of such efforts as regards their applicability to the larger health system. What follows is a discussion of the obvious but often forgotten -a summary of many tough management questions which must be resolved before application of even the most valid standard can have any real impact or utilitarian value within a health system. As the setting, cataloging, and monitoring of standards are being attempted, attention paid to such management considerations might well prevent the best laid plans from going agley.

Family health assurance.

Family health assurance. N Solomon, and M TaybackCopyRight https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.60.9.1678 Published Online: August 29, 2011

Negro Technicians in American Progress

A definition of the technician should include not only those who have made contributions to the material development of America but also those who have discovered or invented educational, political or social ideas that have increased the opportunity for development of the individual and that have improved the basic relations between citizens in our common life. For example, Booker T. Washington and Virginia Randolph developed methods in education that have proven their technical value to American progress. The idea of American progress cannot be static. It includes development of the material forces and instruments, as well as political, social and ethical institutions and agencies. It conceives an ever-enlarging security of life; an enlarging assurance of physical health and comfort and vital growth of moral and spiritual personality of all of the people. With these definitions as a basis, the answers to the following three questions may be attempted by citing a few sample facts, selected from a large body of available data: 1. What have Negro technicians contributed to American progress in the past? 2. What share are they having in present developments of American science and invention? 3. What claim does this record give them for the future?

LIFE AND HEALTH ASSURANCE ASSOCIATION, LIMITED

LIFE AND HEALTH ASSURANCE ASSOCIATION, LIMITED

LIFE AND HEALTH ASSURANCE ASSOCIATION, LIMITED

LIFE AND HEALTH ASSURANCE ASSOCIATION, LIMITED

LIFE AND HEALTH ASSURANCE ASSOCIATION, LIMITED

LIFE AND HEALTH ASSURANCE ASSOCIATION, LIMITED

LIFE AND HEALTH ASSURANCE ASSOCIATION, LIMITED

LIFE AND HEALTH ASSURANCE ASSOCIATION, LIMITED

Experiments in Health Assurance

Experiments in Health Assurance

Three Experiments in Health Assurance

Three Experiments in Health Assurance

Medical Health Assurance

Medical Health Assurance

Medical Health Assurance

Medical Health Assurance

Medical Health Assurance

Medical Health Assurance

Medical Health Assurance Offices

Medical Health Assurance Offices

Medical Health Assurance

Medical Health Assurance