The church played a great role in making sure that the people had access to better health care by being at the fore front, in accommodating the sick ones. It fought the war for better health care by calling for research; to be carried out in the field of medicine. The church played a great role in taking the responsibility of providing the sick people within the community, with the basic needs such as food, water, shelter and clothes. The church did not offer only basic needs to the sick people for they also received free treatment; one which was affordable to all the people in the community.
As a result of the poor sanitation and wars which were going on, the church had sent nurses to attend the sick and the injured within the community. During this era, the church contributed in building of hospitals and medical schools; to ensure that the people had access to better health care. Based on the church’s doctrine that the body is the temple of God, the religious leaders believed that the society had a duty to play in ensuring; that people were free from sickness therefore the need to address this issue (Cockerham, 2009).
Poorhouses were tax-supported housing institutions; to which the public was allowed to stay in, if they were not able to support themselves. However, the system was found to be expensive on the taxpayers; as a bigger proportion of the tax went to it than anticipated by the government. Many hospitals have been built by the church especially the Roman Catholics. The move was meant to provide for better health care to the poor at affordable costs, or for free; to the poor, the orphaned and the aged where, the church intervened and paid for their bills (Cockerham, 2009).
According to ‘Coe (1978)’; the control of information and medical items should be done through the alienation of patients from their normal modalities of life, and being impersonalized from their normal schedules through three precise modalities. These include the modes of stripping, control of resources and laying restrictions on their mobility. From a humanistic point of view, this method of controlling these sectors of the healthcare is not favorable; as the alienation and reduction of relations and dealings can alter the response to treatment.
This can be caused by the fact that patients need some personalized care and contact to the people they are close to; as they are responsible for giving them hope and the inspiration to get better. The restriction of patients movement and stripping can also alter the extent to which patients respond to treatment; as they would only be constrained to the view of the hospital, which on its own is traumatizing as it reminds them of their disease as opposed to being exposed to varied views that encourage mental health that greatly aids the physical wellbeing (Cockerham, 2009).
The controls of information to be proposed include the storage of medical information and items on cabinets and storage places; which are not close to the patients like in a storeroom where, access is restricted to only the authorized staff like doctors and nurses. Another mode of controlling medical information and items can be achieved through the establishment of a network that tracks the dispatch of medical information and items; through the use of computer data storage modes and databases, which are personalized to be accessed by only permitted staff like doctors. This database can also be connected to the storage cabinets; which are operable using an access code operated from a central operative unit; which will play the role of information and item dispatch (Cockerham, 2009).
The examples I would give for improving the control of resources both human and material would be; provision of incentives as a means to improve the efficiency of personnel in healthcare administration. This can be achieved through making maximum use of a few of staff personnel; by giving incentives like over-time pay and excellent performance rewards; instead of having many under performing staff members. The other way would be establishing a central unit to control resource deployment. This would help avoid the instances of medical resources misappropriation; which are disposed off by corrupt staff members for their selfish benefits (Abraham, 1994).
Healthcare is a right and not a privilege; because virtually every citizen is taxed either through their earnings or levies laid on the costs of commodities. The provision of healthcare is financed by the tax collected from the different citizens among other sources; therefore every person including a prisoner, student, employee or an unemployed individual should receive the provision. One of the unquestionable rights of individuals is that of life; which is not attainable without the access to healthcare regardless of societal placement (Abraham, 1994).
The access to healthcare in the U.S is unequal because, healthcare insurance plans are offered by employers selectively, are only affordable by the wealthy, and the only subsidized healthcare plans funded by the state cover only the elderly or the others by medical plans provided by individual’s goodwill. What can be done about this case is that; the government should allocate funds for a healthcare plan, which would cater for people within the different ages, societal classes and various health complications. As a justification for this phenomenon based on the “cruel and unusual punishment” section of the 8th revision of the U.S constitution, only prisoners are specifically endowed with the right to healthcare provision (Abraham, 1994).
Reference list
Abraham, L. (1994). Mama might be better off dead. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Cockerham, W. (2009). Medical Sociology. Upper Saddle River NY: Pearson Education Inc.