Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to T Eckels.
Challenges to their tax-exempt status prod hospitals to answer the question: Are we doing enough to respond to our communities' needs? One consultant has devised a tool for identifying quantifiable hospital charitable services. The model allows hospitals to decide how well they are addressing community needs on the basis of the full range of activities defining their relationships with their communities.
Pennsylvania is currently considering legislative options to expand coverage and improve access to medical care for state residents who lack health insurance. Relevant data are presented from a telephone survey of 10,809 Pennsylvania households. Almost nine percent (8.5%) of the state's population lacks health insurance, representing over one million people. Those most likely to be uninsured are children and young adults, non-whites and the poor. A substantial number of poor people are not covered by the state's Medicaid program. The uninsured report poorer health status, more obstacled to receiving care and greater use of hospital services for primary care.
The Catholic Health Association's social accountability budget is a set of tools to help Catholic healthcare facilities plan for, administer, and report benefits provided to their communities, especially the poor. It defines a full roster of community benefits that a healthcare organization may provide. The benefits fall into three major categories: activities and services, policies and procedures, and community leadership. The social accountability budget also presents guidelines for assessing the facility's existing services, activities, policies, and procedures and discusses how the facility can conduct or be part of a community needs assessment. Information collected through this assessment is used in the planning and budgeting processes. This ensures that uncompensated care and charitable services receive consideration along with traditional planning and budgeting items. Additional guidelines show the facility how to track and measure its services to the community. The final step, often absent from Catholic healthcare facilities' programs, is reporting community benefits.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.