Healthcare In The 1800s

Since 1800’s till recent years, the healthcare system of United States of America has been evolved from a simple traditional system of home remedies and itinerant doctors who were without proper training to a complex, scientific, technological, and bureaucratic system which is also referred as the "medical industrial complex." The authority of medical professionals and medical science and technology have been the basic building blocks for this complex. Prior to 1800’s, domestic medicine had been practiced in United States. Doctor was summoned to the patient’s house by family members to carry out checkup onsite. During that era, the practice of midwifery was a well-known profession for a woman too. Midwifery was the one who attended to every
In this period, medical research had been stressed in most medical schools and institutions. Then it was determined that medical students require more extensive training to be a physician. For instance, John’s Hopkins University’s medical school had decided and announced that a medical student had to complete 4 years of medical bachelor degree and continue for 4 more years to be a physician. After the Civil War ended, nursing schools emerged. Since then, nursing had been a stereotyped professional job for women for the next hundred years [29]. By late twentieth century, the amount of nurses who were receiving advanced degrees was increasing. Due to the drastic improvement in chemistry, biology and medical science in the end of nineteenth century, diseases such as tuberculosis, cholera, yellow fever and so on had been under control with the development of vaccines and diagnostic tests. More public health projects had been carried out as an effort to fight against disease spreading, disease cause and increase the public health level. (rmb to add citations
HMO’s had revolutionized the US healthcare organizations. As a result, the fee-for-service system had faded out in the 1990s. Doctors were finding themselves working under bodies that gained profits from pre-paid healthcare. A system based on ‘capitation’ called Managed Care had slowly replacing the fee-for service system. Doctors were being paid with a set fee and their job was to take care of all of their patients, the sick and the well. This system had stressed on preventive medicine, consumer’s choice and being accountable for one’s own health and healthcare [31]. This was followed by the enhancement in communication technology via Internet and World Wide Web. Hence, most of the health details were available online. Furthermore, ‘telemedicine’ had allowed patients to be diagnosed and treated by doctors via Internet too. (rmb to add citations