Issues in Health Care Administration

By Walter Johnson

With budget crunches in the U.S. health care system, the struggles of public health are getting more attention. As public health administration moves heavily into illness prevention and education to cut costs, issues affecting its successes and failures become more noticeable. Budgets and policy development conflict as health care costs continue to climb. Prevention is increasingly seen as the key to controlling these costs.

Issues in public health deal with the relationship between the state and the community's health. The mission of public health over the last century has been to mitigate effects of industrialism and urbanization. Quality of life increased for many people from improvements in hygiene and sanitation.

The general function of health care administration is to prevent health problems before they begin. Improvements in the predictive power of statistical models---used by public health workers worldwide---aid in this function. Such predictions also save money for already overloaded health care budgets.

Education is central to public health, highlighting the facts about lifestyle issues---poor eating habits, smoking and drug use---for the public. Public health administration also deals with such issues as the care of young people, especially in utero, by providing information and services for maternal and parent care. Stemming unhealthy lifestyles that lead to heart and vascular problems combats effects of a generation raised on fast food. Lifestyle issues are crucial in rural and inner city areas. Children are steered away from drugs and alcohol through substantial investments in education, saving millions of dollars later in health care costs.

Effects of improvements in public health include a reduction in individual health care costs while increasing life span and quality of life. A healthy population is a hard-working population. Energy levels and health increases as the diet of the general population changes from fast food to vegetables and nutrient-rich fruits. The effects are, in short, a rational approach to human life that seeks to increase longevity and happiness over time.

The issues in health care have a tangible effect on the physical and financial makeup of the community. A healthy population has lower amounts of depression and obesity, and health care costs should fall as hygiene and sanitation continue to improve. The central goal in public health is education for prevention---to stop disease before it starts and control health care costs.

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