Healthcare in the United States: Clinical, Financial, and Operational Dimensions

  • 7h 7m
  • Kenneth L. Johnson, Stephen L. Walston
  • Health Administration Press
  • 2021

Healthcare in the United States is composed of a myriad of overlapping elements. Understanding how these elements interact provides insight into the US healthcare system’s history, its present state, and the strategies now emerging to address the complexities and demands that lie ahead.

Healthcare in the United States: Clinical, Financial, and Operational Dimensions offers an introductory overview of the American healthcare system by exploring its many organizations, populations, professions, structures, financing, and delivery models, as well as their impact. Authors Stephen L. Walston and Kenneth L. Johnson delve into the many conflicting issues related to cost, access, and quality.

The book’s 14 chapters cover the following and more:

  • A comprehensive review of the health professions and types of healthcare organizations
  • An exploration of how medical providers are paid
  • Major challenges currently facing physicians, hospitals, and the pharmaceutical industry
  • An examination of the long-term and mental healthcare sectors and the increasing demands for their services
  • The significant role of the government in healthcare, including the influence of politics
  • The basics of population health, including an in-depth look at how changing social, demographic, and economic conditions in the United States affect healthcare
  • The connections between health behaviors, health insurance, and health outcomes
  • Information technology’s role in healthcare
  • A comparison of US healthcare to that in other countries, with a focus on the four basic models on which most healthcare systems are created

To enhance and assess students’ learning, each of the book’s chapters features case studies, thought-provoking questions and assignments, sidebars, and key terms accompanied by definitions.

As they read, future healthcare administrators and clinicians will obtain a grounding in the multifaceted US healthcare system, thus enabling them to better address its multiple priorities, controversies, and opportunities.

About the Author

Stephen L. Walston, is a professor and former director of the Master of Health Administration at the David Eccles School of Business at the University of Utah. Previously he served as vice president for academic affairs at the University of Utah Asia Campus at the Incheon Global Campus in Songdo, South Korea, and was a professor on the faculty of the Division of Public Health in the Department of Family and Preventive Medicine in the University of Utah’s Medical School. Dr. Walston was previously a professor and associate dean for academic affairs in the Department of Health Administration and Policy at the University of Oklahoma’s College of Public Health and the director of the Master of Health Administration program at Indiana University. Prior to his academic career, he spent 14 years as an executive in hospitals in the western United States, including ten years as a CEO.

Kenneth L. Johnson, PhD, FACHE, serves as associate dean and professor in the Dumke College of Health Professions at Weber State University in Ogden, Utah. He holds a doctorate in health education and has primarily taught in the areas of healthcare administration and population health. He is a past chair of the Association of University Programs in Healthcare Administration and past president of the National Association of Local Boards of Health. He is a Fellow of both the American College of Healthcare Executives and the Association of Schools Advancing Health Professions. He represents the latter as a member of the Healthy People Curriculum Task Force. Prior to his appointment at Weber State, Dr. Johnson worked for 15 years in healthcare, holding positions in hospital administration and medical group management.

In this Book

  • Preface
  • The History of US Healthcare and the Demographics of Disease
  • Healthcare Professions
  • Hospitals and Healthcare Systems
  • The Pharmaceutical and Medical Device Industries
  • Long-Term Care
  • Mental Health
  • Government Involvement in US Healthcare
  • The Economics of Healthcare
  • Health Insurance
  • The Quality of US Healthcare
  • Health Information Technology
  • Population Health
  • The US Healthcare System in Comparison with Other Countries
  • The Future of Healthcare in the United States
  • Glossary
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