Advantages And Disadvantages Of Gatekeeping

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Gatekeeping is referring to the New Zealand healthcare system and non-gatekeeping is referring to the United States’ healthcare system. Countries undergo specific health systems tailored towards what they believe will make their health system more effective. These may include concepts similar or different. In this case, people living in one country can visit a specialist when desired, whereas other countries require patients to have a referral from their primary physician to seek further attention. Gatekeeping is a decisive term that will be used throughout this report. Assuming its meaning, evaluating possible advantages and disadvantages through given scenarios and finally concluding on whether it’s a good practice to incorporate into health systems. Lastly, I will be discussing concepts of access, quality and efficiency in both New Zealand and the U.S. Gatekeeping is a practice used in the health system whereby patients are required to visit their …show more content…

According to Wasson et al (1984), gatekeeping shows reductions in hospitalisations. This claim is proven effective through a study done by the (Scandinavian Health Publication 2011) of determining whether gatekeeping can slow down hospitalisation rates. The study was positive in which gatekeeping in fact does reduce hospitalisation rates. The study was conducted in several ways (percentage of patients with at least one inpatient episode in the observation period). The number of hospitalisations per 1000 patients, number of hospital days per 1000 persons. Ultimately, The studies suggested fewer hospitalisations under gatekeeping. This is a positive result for people under the gatekeeping practice. This is because the rate of people needing to be hospitalised is reduced and people are also saving costs. Costs are being saved due to the reduction of people being hospitalized for both family members and