Medical Professionals Flashcards
Medical professionals
provide preventive, curative, and rehabilitative health care services to people, families, and communities (Hegazi & Wilson, 2013). provide care through systematic processes that include services such as surgery, pharmacy, nursing, and medicine. are considered highly-skilled, and many often specialize in branches of health care such as surgery and diagnostics. field is a highly regulated field with credentialing and quality oversight.
What impact does the medical professional have on patients, providers, health administrators, third-party payers, and the government?
Health care professionals represent
a diverse group of health care employees and may include physicians, nurses, dentists, pharmacists, podiatrists, ophthalmologists, health services administrators, allied health professionals, therapists, chiropractors, psychologists, and more.
Each group
may be employed in a variety of settings, and each undergoes unique and highly specialized training and education. many of these employee groups require routine continuing education in an effort to keep abreast of the most current medical information
Typical medical professionals
have extensive education and skill or practice training. medical school includes 5 years of basic science study and clinical rotation through different areas at hospitals.
A medical professional specialty involves
additional education beyond medical school. Providers who specialize often complete additional years in school and take residency programs for the specialty. Specialties have historically been divided between two areas: internal medicine and surgical medicine.
A third area includes diagnostic.
Surgical services involve the diagnosis and treatment through surgical techniques and require up to 8 years of residency.
Internal medicine involves
diagnosis and treatment that is non-surgical and takes up to 3 years of residency. Diagnostic medicine focuses on the diagnosis of disorders, and it is nontreatment and nonsurgical.
There are 26 medical specialties recognized in the United States. A depiction of the categories is as follows:
What is the focus of surgical medicine practice?
Surgical
Specialties focus on treating disease using manually operative and instrumental techniques
Orthopedic surgeon, neurosurgeon
Medical
Specialties that focus on the diagnosis and nonsurgical treatment of disease
Internal medicine, primary care physician, family doctor
(Internal medicine focuses on the diagnosis)
Diagnostic
Specialties that focus on the diagnosis of disorders
Radiologist, pathologist
Health care services
in the United States are regulated by the government.
Physicians, nurses, and other health care professionals are licensed and credentialed.
Licensing occurs at the state level, and health care facilities monitor credentials and continuing education credits.
Inappropriate license or certification
practices can result in the restriction of a license or in criminal charges, especially if there is harm to a patient.
State offices
that administer medical professional licensure are involved with administering licensing exams, license verification, and the investigation of patient incidents and complaints against health professionals.
patient perspective
highly skilled medical professionals can lead to a higher quality of care and, in turn, better treatment outcomes. Example a highly trained physician who is current with his or her continuing education can often diagnose a new illness quickly as a result of keeping abreast of new medical information. This ability to quickly diagnose can lead to improved recovery rates.
administrator’s perspective,
having highly skilled medical professionals on staff is not only advantageous for the patients, but for the facility as well. For example, having such a highly skilled staff can be used as a marketing tool. The administrator could advertise the highly skilled nature of the facility’s providers in an effort to set the facility apart from its competitors and to draw in new business.
