The OLLI Home Page gives general information on the course.
In the top menu find the right class - Part 1 or Part 2 or Healthcare. Each of the individual class sessions have pages with more information and resources.
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Email: gentryd@sou.edu
Phone: 541-261-8501
We start our journey with some numbers and concepts - on health and healthcare. Measuring health involves some typical statistics - on things like mortality (death) and morbidity (illness). Health also includes our ability to engage in the activities of daily living, and our ability to participate in the labor force, should we choose to. Life expectancy is a summative measure of health.
We will use the term healthcare to refer to the provision of services to improve health. Measures here typically count the number and kind of services, and the cost of providing or getting those services. Many times these services result in improved health, but not always. Incorrect diagnostic tests leading to surgery is one example of where healthcare reduces someone's health. Hospital acquired infections or errors in treatment are obvious other examples. Sometimes healthcare services are benign, with no overt impact on health, but even here we worry about the use of resources for some service that doesn't improve health.
Health policy weighs these questions of efficacy of healthcare services, access to these services, financing, and ultimately the balance between national health goals versus other important goals. We look to other countries for some clues on the policy choices they made, and we can compare them to the United States.
Resources Used in This Session
from
Who Shall Live by Victor Fuchs