Over the past few years, we’ve become increasingly aware of the need to improve the public healthcare system.
This awareness has come regardless of the COVID-19 outbreak, although that helped further highlight the pressing need for changes.
Various public health challenges require immediate intervention, and making these changes can help improve community welfare as a whole.
A healthy environment is one of the basic rights of any community, and improving public health can lead to communities flourishing and attaining their potential. Without a healthy environment, even the most skilled individuals can fail to be as productive as they need to be.
Moreover, public health concerns help address mental and physical health alike. However, identifying the most pressing issues and figuring out ways to address them is the first step.
If you’re interested in learning more about ways you can work towards improving the public healthcare system, keep reading below.
Understanding systematic intricacies
Before you start thinking of ways to fix the system, you need to understand it first. The public healthcare system is an incredibly vast, intricate system, and it’s vital to know how it operates to bring lasting changes.
Various factors influence the public healthcare system, ranging from social to cultural, economic, and political factors. Some groups may have better access to public health compared to others.
It is important to understand these inequalities before working towards improving the public health system.
Understanding these systematic intricacies can be referred to as systems thinking. Systems thinking recognizes the various factors that influence public health policies.
It involves addressing issues faced by hospitals and clinics, researchers, patient support groups, politicians, reformers, and grassroots workers.
Once you develop this understanding of the public health system, you can work more organized to bring about lasting change.
Improve employee wellness
Improving employee wellness is easily one of the most vital factors to consider when assessing public health challenges.
An immensely sizeable portion of people works in offices and other workplaces, and these individuals have unique health needs which need to be addressed.
Usually, when considering employee wellness, the focus tends to be on people employed in physically demanding jobs.
However, regardless of industry, all employees must pay attention to their mental and physical well-being.
Employee wellness programs can be incredibly diverse and tackle various public health issues. One extremely pertinent issue can be nutrition, as many employees don’t have access to healthy food while at work.
Supplying offices and workplaces with healthier alternatives can go a long way in improving public health. Moreover, policymakers can focus on creating ergonomic workplaces for employees to protect their physical health even as they work.
With time, such practices can breed healthier employees who are better equipped to be proactive members of society.
Fix wait times
Wait times are easily one of the biggest issues faced by the public health system, and long waitlists can cause even critical-level patients to face immense delays for life-saving treatment.
Recent research shows that in 2018 alone, 1480 scheduled procedures had to be canceled because the patients who had to get them passed away.
Thus, wait times do more than cause inconvenience – they can deny life-saving treatment to patients who need it the most.
Several more deaths occur due to patients being denied life-saving care at crucial moments. Addressing wait times can be essential in saving lives and boosting community health.
Boosting capacity in hospitals can ensure that as many patients get access to healthcare services within time.
Additionally, more innovative measures for healthcare institutions can allow healthcare workers to work more efficiently.
Spread awareness about healthcare issues
One of the best ways to improve public health is by educating and spreading awareness among the masses.
Lack of awareness and bad healthcare practices have a huge impact on community healthcare and can hamper the efforts of healthcare professionals too.
Community healthcare can fall immensely if people don’t know how to handle preventable diseases. Infectious diseases can spread fast, and chronic health conditions like heart disease, respiratory illnesses, and more can cause immense damage.
Helping people take the initiative to prevent many health issues can reduce the burden on hospitals and clinics.
This, in turn, allows healthcare professionals to focus on more pressing issues and cut down wait times by half.
Spreading awareness can be easy through seminars, online sessions, infographics, etc. Information from trusted sources can make a huge difference and help people adopt better practices.
Moreover, educating people in schools, colleges, and workplaces and targeting vulnerable populations, in particular, can be instrumental.
Encourage public transit
Air pollution is easily one of the most pressing public health concerns of the day and addressing it is imperative to reduce various health issues in public.
People who live in heavily urbanized zones or near main roads, schools, and other public centers, in particular, are at a much higher risk of respiratory illnesses, among others.
As the number of cars on the streets increases, the risk of people contracting various diseases will increase.
Encouraging the use of public transport is vital to improving community healthcare. Public transport can help us reduce our carbon footprint through fewer emissions.
Using buses, trains, and even carpooling can reduce the number of cars and other motor vehicles.
Additionally, switching to healthier modes of transport such as bicycles can help reduce air pollution too.
Combined measures can help us create healthier, cleaner spaces where the air isn’t clogged with chemical buildup.
Conclusion
Correcting public health challenges can seem daunting, but it is still entirely possible. Once we understand the various factors contributing to these challenges, we can be better equipped to handle them.
Whether it’s wait times, pollution, or lack of awareness, this guide can help you fix many public health concerns.
Tackling these issues effectively can help create happy, healthy, and thriving communities.
