Community Hospital Influences

Influence of Community Hospitals on Local Health System

According to the survey of American Public Health Association (1941), people define health simply as “the absence of disease, that living without disease is to be healthy.” Such a definition relegates health to the medical professions charged with protecting good health and overcoming or managing poor health.

This broader context of health was repeated in the 1946 World Health Organization Constitution, which defines health as “a state of complete physical, social, and mental well-being, and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity”. Unfortunately, such a narrow definition fails to recognize the multidimensional factors that influence health.

Although these definitions of health

It is not common for rural residents to find employment very close to where they live. In fact, travel to work is typically the longest trip made each day. However, the community hospital can provide some jobs to individuals who are looking for a constrained work opportunity, such as a teenager who is unable to drive or a stay at home parent who is flexible about the type of work they get and prioritizes a convenient location to their

C. Everett Koop (1992), “we need to place emphasis on healthcare and not cure. Curing costs billions, but caring comes from the soul.” Futurists have predicted that in the twenty-first century, ambulatory care will be just as important to hospitals as acute care, that more than fifty percent of the average hospital’s revenues will come from ambulatory services.

Outpatient specialty procedures now include, ophthalmology, OB-Gyn, ENT, orthopedic, general, plastic, podiatry, urology, gastroenterology, pain block, and neurology. Medicare and Medicaid acceptance and reimbursement is a primary factor in the development of hospital facilities. In more recent years, significant advances in diagnostic and therapeutic technologies have permitted more patients to be seen on an ambulatory basis. Management of many illnesses and diseases associated with the aging process are now addressed without admitting patients to the hospital.

Considering the predicted reduced demand for institutional care, the ambulatory and home care become the focus for less acute health intervention. The ambulatory setting will become more capable and receptive to the diagnosis and treatment of our aging citizens than is possible now. Presently, we see the actual possibility of a pro-active and preventive