These interviews and expert-written features offer a look into the healthcare industry from those who know it best: professors, practicing healthcare administrators, advocates, and leaders in professional associations.
December 12, 2023
The debate over whether healthcare should be treated as a business or a right has gone on for decades. Both sides have a similar end goal, and that is for our nation to boast a healthy population of generally productive individuals without bankrupting itself in the process. The disagreement is mostly in how to achieve the goal.
November 15, 2023
Classism in healthcare is a pervasive issue that significantly impedes access to quality treatment and care. The socioeconomic status of individuals often dictates the standard and frequency of healthcare they receive. This systemic bias typically involves prejudices, attitudes, and actions favoring the higher socioeconomic classes while marginalizing those in the lower strata of society.
November 6, 2023
Access and affordability are closely interlinked concepts used for evaluating the sector's effectiveness overall. Within healthcare, effectiveness covers metrics ranging from dollar spend to inclusivity scores. Not only is the range of possible variables quite vast, but the relationships between and among data points are also meaningful. This adds a layer of complexity and an opportunity for a deeper understanding into the “why” of how events unfold.
October 26, 2023
An October 2020 survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) found that nearly six out of ten Black Americans trusted the nation’s healthcare system only some or almost none of the time to do what was right for their communities. That mistrust is understandable: the nation’s healthcare system has a long history of mistreating its non-white racial and ethnic communities.
September 20, 2023
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), a profound number of people are ageist: half of the global population. This staggering statistic reveals how prevalent discrimination against older adults is and how insidious. Psychologists have called it the last socially acceptable form of discrimination.
September 14, 2023
Medical mistreatment and the mistrust it engenders isn’t confined to history, nor is it limited to the Black population: today, women, people of color, Native Americans, and members of the LGBTQIA+ community experience minor or major discriminations that justifiably leave them distrustful of traditional healthcare services.
September 13, 2023
In the healthcare industry, collaboration is key. For doctors, nurses, and administrative professionals, collaboration is essential to providing the highest quality of care. However, collaboration only happens with thoughtful intervention from healthcare administrators. They are responsible for developing those skills personally and teaching their staff how to work together. Working collaboratively can have a significant impact on patient outcomes.
August 28, 2023
The influence of physician expertise tends to be weighted more heavily in collaborative decision-making discussions at the highest levels of HCOs. The opinion of this writer is that such weighting is expected and is appropriate for patient safety. This may change over time as regulatory bodies have formalized and adopted more AI/ML frameworks for best practices and standards.
August 15, 2023
While the U.S. has some of the best hospitals and medical schools in the world, our healthcare system is fraught with systemic issues that limit access to quality healthcare and ultimately compromise public health.