the healthcare industry

Copyright © 2007 by Saunders, Inc., an imprint of Elsevier Inc. 1

The Healthcare IndustryChapter 2


What recent events could be included as ground-breaking discoveries in medicine?Why is continuing medical research so important to the healthcare industry?How can the individual medical assistant contribute to the progress of medicine in today’s world?What is the value in gaining an overview of the entire healthcare industry as one begins a career in medical assisting?

While Studying This Chapter, think about the following questions:


Medicine and medical technology grow at amazingly rapid rates. The medical assistant will be expected to always remain open to learning and growing within the field.This chapter will examine:

• the history of medicine• national organizations associated with the healthcare

industry• various types of healthcare facilities• types of medical practices• different healthcare professionals we encounter in

medicine

Introduction


Much of our medical terminology comes from Greek and Roman mythology.Terms have also been borrowed from Arabic, Anglo-Saxon, German, and biblical sources.Atlas bore the heavens on his shoulders, and this name has been given to the first cervical vertebrae.Achilles’ heel is a term used to indicate a weakness of some sort, and this is rooted in Greek mythology.Aesculapius, the son of Apollo, was revered as the god of medicine. The early Greeks worshiped his healing powers and built temples in his honor.

Medical Language and Mythology


The staff of Aesculapius depicts a serpent encircling a staff and signifies the art of healing. This icon has been adopted by the American Medical Association as the symbol of medicine.The snake may have originally been a worm, but in the Middle Ages, it was considered a snake and that is the interpretation that has survived to the present day. The snake is supposedly shedding its skin, representing birth and renewal, while the staff is a symbol of authority befitting the God of Medicine, Aesculapius.

Aesculapius


The caduceus, a mythological staff belonging to Hermes, depicts a staff encircled by two serpents, with wings at the top. The staff was considered to have magical powers. Today it is the icon for the U.S. Army Medical Corps.

Several stories exist regarding this symbol. One suggests that Hermes saw two serpents involved in mortal combat. He separated them with his wand and brought peace between them, and the serpents entwined on the staff; the wings that represented Hermes became known as a symbol of peace.

Caduceus


The use of drugs, surgery, and other treatments dates back as far as 5000 BC.Moses offered a group of rules related to health to the Hebrews around 1205 BC. He was an advocate of public health and is considered the first public health officer.

Medicine in Ancient Times


Wrote the Hippocratic Oath, which is administered to medical school graduates even today.

View of medicine was based on scientific evidence.

Credited with taking some of the mysticism out of medicine.

Argued that illness was not a result of demon possession.

Believed the body had the capacity to heal itself.

Hippocrates - The Father of Medicine


Wrote more than 500 treatises on medically related subjects.

Much of his information was inaccurate because it was based on the dissection of apes and pigs instead of the human body.

Teachings were considered truthful and valid until human dissections began and physicians could see exactly what was inside the human body.

Believed that medicine was not to be practiced for profit. He was a champion of medical ethics.

Galen - Prince of Physicians

Believe it…or not?Few people challenged Hippocrates and Galen in their teachings because the two were so well respected. Experimentation in medicine was not done during these times.


The invention of the printing press played a major role in the exchange of medical information and ideas, because books and papers could be distributed faster and on a wider scale.

The printing press was critical not only for medicine, but for all endeavours. Information is passed from place to place much faster now with the Internet, but books are still used much more frequently than computers for study and scholastic purposes. This could change as technology advances and more individuals grow up with computers, producing a more computer-literate society.

Early Development of Medical Education


In the seventeenth century, academies or societies were established in Europe that consisted of small groups of men who met to discuss areas of mutual interest. This contributed to the free exchange of medical and scientific ideas. Even early medical pioneers saw the value in coming together to discuss trends, discoveries, and exchange of information. One of the first of these organizations was the Royal Society of London, which was formed in 1662. The Medical Act of 1858 in Great Britain established a statutory body, the General Medical Council, which controlled admission to the medical register and had authority over medical education and examinations.

Medical Academies and Societies


Johns Hopkins University Medical School became the leader in medical education in the United States. The school partnered with Johns Hopkins Hospital, which exposed students to actual patients during their medical training. This made Johns Hopkins the best option for medical training, and the school remains a leader in medical education today. Johns Hopkins took part in a television series produced by ABC that was made from over 1500 hours of footage shot at the hospital. Actual doctors and patients participated in the unscripted series.

Medical Academies and Societies


Abraham Flexner studied various medical schools and determined which ones offered the highest quality education. His “Flexner Report” was one of the earliest examples of the accreditation process. As a result of the publication of his report, many schools that were low ranking closed, many schools were improved, and others emerged as leaders in medical education of the day.

Quality in Medical Education


Andreas Vesalius was the Father of Modern Anatomy. He published a book detailing the structure of the human body that conflicted with the earlier teachings of Galen. This led to his persecution by his colleagues.

Early Medical Pioneers


Gabriele Fallopius described and named many parts of human anatomy, including the fallopian tubes in the female. Was a student of Vesalius and he also named the vagina and placenta.

William Harvey discovered that the heart acts as a muscular pump, moving blood throughout the body. He also suggested that blood circulation is a continuous cycle. England considered Harvey its “medical Shakespeare.”


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Anton van Leeuwenhoek discovered the magnification process and was the first to observe bacteria and protozoa through a lens. He ground over 400 lenses throughout his lifetime, some no larger than a pinhead.

Marcello Malpighi was a proponent of using the microscope and was instrumental in making microscope study a prerequisite in medicine. He also described the pulmonary and capillary system, one of the most important discoveries in scientific history. He is considered the first histologist.



John Hunter is known as the Founder of Scientific Surgery. He presented surgical procedures based on sound pathologic evidence. He was the first to introduce artificial feeding into the stomach through a tube. He studied venereal diseases and pioneered tissue transfer. He was also an army surgeon and an expert in gunshot wounds and tissue transfer. He also classified teeth in a scientific manner.Edward Jenner is best known for giving the first vaccination. He studied smallpox and cowpox, and as a result of Jenner’s work, smallpox has been eradicated from the world. Think of all the diseases for which we now have vaccinations. Jenner is directly responsible for the discovery of the vaccination process. He was one of John Hunter’s students. Smallpox was a pandemic at the time.

Scientific Advances in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries


Leopold Auenbrugger developed the use of percussion in diagnosis.

Rene Laennec developed the stethoscope, which began as a rolled paper, allowing him to hear sounds inside the body.



Ignaz Philipp Semmelweis has been called the Savior of Mothers because of his work fighting puerperal fever. Semmelweis felt an incredible guilt that so many deaths were caused by the physicians themselves. He realized that disinfecting and washing hands when moving from one patient to another would reduce the spread of germs. Unfortunately, he died from puerperal fever himself, having been infected by a cut on his finger during an autopsy.

Louis Pasteur is one of the most famous contributors to medicine. He is best known for developing pasteurization, a method of destroying microorganisms. He continued his work in the world of bacteria, certain that bacteria were the key to infectious diseases. The last 7 years of his life were devoted to the Pasteur Institute, which still exists in France today.



Joseph Lister is considered the Father of Sterile Surgery, because he realized that Pasteur’s beliefs about bacteria were correct and that microorganisms must be kept out of wounds and surgical sites. One of the highlights of Lister’s life was meeting Pasteur. Pasteur’s studies and discoveries allowed Lister to advance medicine in the area of sterile technique.

Robert Koch developed Koch’s Postulates, which are rules that must be in place before an organism can be accepted as the causative agent in a disease. He developed tools that are used in laboratories, such as the culture plate, and he discovered that diseases could be transmitted by food and water.



Paul Ehrlich is best remembered for his Formula 606, which was designed to fight syphilis. This drug was the first that was injected into the body to destroy a specific organism.

Crawford Williamson Long was the first to use an anesthetic agent. He discovered that medical students who were under the influence of ether did not seem to feel pain, and he later successfully used ether as an anesthetic agent during surgery.



Wilhelm Konrad Roentgen discovered x-rays in 1895 and was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1901.

Marie and Pierre Curie discovered radium in 1898 and were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1902.



Florence Nightingale was the founder of nursing, known as the “Lady with the Lamp” because of her efforts in caring for wounded soldiers. She founded the Nightingale School and Home for Nurses, which was the beginning of nursing education.

Clara Barton was the founder of the American Red Cross, an agency established originally to keep more accurate records of men missing, wounded, and killed in combat. She first established the Bureau of Records. Later the American Red Cross emerged as a vital organization, and it remains so today.

Nineteenth-Century Women in Medicine


Elizabeth Blackwell was the first female medical doctor in the United States. She also established the New York Infirmary for Indigent Women and Children, which was the first hospital staffed entirely by women.


Lillian Wald was instrumental in establishing the world’s first public school nursing system.


Margaret Sanger was a proponent of birth control for women at a time when it was illegal to import or distribute any device designed to prevent pregnancy or induce abortion. She was imprisoned for her work in establishing the first American birth control clinic.The research she advocated into hormonal contraception eventually led to the development of the birth control pill. She was named honorary chairperson of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America when it was formed in 1941.



Walter Reed proved yellow fever could be transmitted by a mosquito bite.

Twenty-First Century Medicine

Sir Frederick Banting and Charles Best isolated insulin for use in treating diabetics.

Sir Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin accidentally as he was researching.

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Helen Taussig, Alfred Blalock, and Vivien Thomas developed the lifesaving Blalock-Taussig procedure for blue babies.



Jonas Salk and Albert Sabin developed an injectable vaccination against polio.


Werner Forssmann developed the cardiac catheterization technique


Christian Barnard performed the first human heart transplant.


Elisabeth Kübler-Ross pioneered the understanding of the grief process. Elisabeth Kübler-Ross wrote more than 20 books on the subject of death, dying, and living well when faced with terminal illness.


Dr. David Ho is one of the most brilliant minds working on the AIDS crisis today. He is the Scientific Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center in New York. Dr. Ho still does his calculations in Chinese. He was Time Magazine’s “Man of the Year” in 1996.


Dr. Eve Slater is the former Assistant Secretary for Health in the Department of Health and Human Services. She currently serves on numerous boards for aggressive medical research organizations. Dr. Slater was the first female Vice President of Corporate Public Affairs for the Merck Research Laboratory and the first female chief of residents at the Massachusetts General Hospital.


Dr. C. Everett Koop is a dedicated, colorful man who continues to contribute to medicine. He is a former Surgeon General of the United States. Dr. Koop is a strong antismoking proponent and supported the right to life. He also was one of the few early Governmental figures who supported AIDS information – so much so that he mailed information about the disease to every household in America. He also supported sex education in public schools, which eventually included information on condoms as a preventative for HIV transmission.


Dr. Marcia Angell is the former editor-in-chief of the New England Journal of Medicine, a leading publication widely read and regarded by physicians. Dr. Angell teaches in Harvard Medical School’s Division of Medical Ethics.


Dr. Anthony Fauci was the fifth most cited scientist during the years 1981 to1994. He is the Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at NIH, where his career has spanned over 40 years. Dr. Fauci received the Presidential Medal of Freedom at the White House in June of 2008. He has written more than 1,100 scientific publications and several textbooks.


Dr. Antonia Novello is New York State’s Health Commissioner and was the first Hispanic and first woman to be appointed Surgeon General of the United States. Dr. Novello was once the honorary chairperson of the National Youth Summit for Mothers Against Drunk Driving. She devoted much of her career to issues surrounding underage drinking and smoking.


The World Health Organization (WHO) Specialized agency of the United Nations Promotes cooperation among nations to control and eliminate

diseases worldwide Created and maintains the ICD coding system to classify

diseases and conditions Instrumental in discussions of ethical and moral implications

of medical issues

The National View of Health Care


Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) Principal U.S. agency for providing essential human services Consists of more than 300 programs Oversees Medicare and Medicaid programs

DHHS programs include: Medical and social science research Immunization services Financial assistance for low-income families Child support enforcement services Improvement of infant and maternal health Child and elder abuse prevention services Assistance programs for elderly Americans



United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) Conducts research programs in national defense and infectious

diseases that benefit everyone Works extensively with WHO and CDC Researches four biosafety levels of diseases with varying

degrees of biohazard potential



Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Principal U.S. agency concerned with health and safety of

people throughout the world Clearinghouse for health information and statistics Researches the origin and occurrence of diseases Develops methods for disease control and prevention

National Institutes of Health Division of the Department of Health and Human Services Thousands of research projects are underway at any given time Furnishes biomedical information to healthcare professions



Hospitals Classified according to type of care and services they provide and

their ownership. Some hospitals are for profit, and some are nonprofit. Nonprofit organizations may make money, but the money must be

reinvested back into the facility. Acute care hospitals are equipped to handle the most severe

emergencies. Sub acute care hospitals offer less extensive patient care. Specialty, teaching, and community hospitals also exist in the

healthcare arena. Private hospitals are usually run by a corporation. Numerous departments within the hospitals carry out a wide variety

of functions. Credentialing involves determining if an individual should have staff

privileges. Hospitals go through an accreditation process, often conducted by

JCAHO. Standards or indicators are used to determine compliance with

regulations.

Types of Healthcare Facilities


Ambulatory CarePhysician’s offices may be single practice, partnerships, group practices, or multispecialty clinics.

Other ambulatory care centers include: Occupational health centers Sleep centers Physical therapy centers Urgent care centers Freestanding surgical centers Dialysis centers Skilled nursing facilities Assisted living facilities Independent retirement communities



Other Healthcare Facilities Physician office laboratories Diagnostic laboratories Home health agencies Medical suppliers Rehabilitation facilities



Sole Proprietorship An individual holds exclusive right and title to all

aspects of the medical practice.Partnership Two or more physicians associated in a medical

practice.Corporation A legal and business status independent of its

shareholders or employees.

Medical Practices


The Title of Doctor Doctors of Medicine Doctors of Osteopathy Hospitalists Doctors of Chiropractic Dentists Optometrists Podiatrists Other Doctorates

Healthcare Professionals


Licensed Medical Professionals

Physician assistants Nurse practitioners Nurse anesthetists Registered nurses Licensed

practical/vocational nurses Medical technologists Medical laboratory

technicians Physical therapists

Respiratory therapists Occupational therapists Cardiovascular

technologists Diagnostic medical

sonographers or technologists

Radiology technicians Paramedics Emergency medical

technicians Registered dieticians

Licensed or Certified Professionals


This is an exciting time to enter the healthcare industry.

Medical assisting is a versatile career field that offers incredible opportunities to new graduates and seasoned professionals.

Closing Comments


Points to Reinforce:

Medical research in developing new techniques, procedures, and medicines is critical.Medical research allows us to discover new diseases or new information about current diseases.

Summary of Scenario

the healthcare industry

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