Integrating The US Public Health And Medical Care Systems To Improve Health Crisis Response.
Health Aff (Millwood)
; 42(3): 310-317, 2023 03.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-2252798
ABSTRACT
The operational cleavage between the US public health and medical care systems contributed to the country's difficulty in containing community spread of COVID-19 in the pandemic's first months. We provide an overview of the independent evolution of these two systems, drawing on case examples and publicly available outcome data, to demonstrate how three fundamental elements of epidemic response-case finding, mitigating transmission, and treatment-were undermined by the lack of coordination between public health and medical care and how these gaps contributed to health disparities. We propose policy initiatives to address these gaps and facilitate coordination across the two systems build a case-finding diagnostic system to quickly identify and mitigate the emergence of health threats in communities, develop data systems that facilitate the transfer of critical health intelligence from medical institutions to public health departments, and establish referral pathways for public health practitioners to connect people with medical services. These policies are practicable because they build on existing efforts and those currently in development.
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Epidemics
/
COVID-19
Type of study:
Prognostic study
Limits:
Humans
Language:
English
Journal:
Health Aff (Millwood)
Year:
2023
Document Type:
Article
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