Hospital Closure in California and the Costs of Drugs - Essay Sample

Introduction

In the past decades, many hospitals have closed their doors in the United States and other developed countries. In California, the decision to close the hospitals depended on how profitable the hospitals ware, their rate of occupation and the local population adaptive changes. (Hsia, et al, 2016)Additionally, leaving the people of California without a health center and being the health center of the community brought many negative effects on the community's health with the residents lacking access to health care services (Galloway et al, 2017). Various studies have assessed the impacts that hospital closures have had on the people of California in relation to the rising costs of drugs.

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The rising cost of drugs in California caused by the closure of hospitals has led many people to utilize the cost-sharing measures that are availed to them. Government researcher has recently reviewed the effects that cost sharing could have on the vulnerable group such as those suffering from chronic illness and the poor (Hsia, et al, 2016). As a result of closing the health centers, cost-sharing decreased the use of prescribed medication in California. Additionally, co-payments on the total number of prescribed subsidized drugs went low since the prices in the private pharmacies went higher (Galloway et al, 2017). The people of California had a reduction in their savings since the prices were offset in the other hospitals. Due to cost sharing that resulted, many people started foregoing essential medical visits and thus their health weakened.

Closure of the hospital in California meant that people should adopt managed health care. With the managed health care in place in California, it meant that drugs provision will be at a cost. Many drug sellers have been impacted by the changes and the closure of the health center. The occurring feature of managed health care has illuminated many problems and laying emphasis on how the pharmacists working in the remaining health centers have to cope with the closure of the hospital (Hsia, et al, 2016). So as the drugs could be affordable in California, the pharmacists were addressed to find the potentiality of dropping their prices in the pharmacies. To achieve this, the pharmacists were asked what was happening, the reason for the closure of the hospital and what could happen in California if the cost of drugs continues being high. Accordingly, for one to be in a certain game, then they ought to be an understanding of what is treading.

The health status of many people negatively changed as a result of increased drugs dispensing in California. Person health status is the most significant evidence of good health care disbursement. The incomes of many people in California had a negative tread since the medication was on the rise. Demographic and social economic factors affected drug prescription and their use since the closure of the hospital (Galloway et al, 2017). In the past, many patients attended the health center before its closure and advised to get medication in the nearby pharmacies. Before the closure of the health center, patients got prescribed drug insurance which increased utilization of pharmaceutical products (Hsia, et al, 2016). Moreover, the closure of the hospital meant a negative impact on drug insurance and thus the costs are yet to be determined.

Travelling longer distances to get medication also was a routine for the people of California who lived near closed health care. This impacted them financially as the costs for travelling to get medication was not a thing that they were used to (Galloway et al, 2017). Mostly, their ability to get medication and other services was higher and thus leading to deterioration of a person's health.

Generally, there are many implications for various practices that come as a result of office closure apart from the rising costs of drugs. Such implications include; opening up of new private health centers that could be expensive, as well as changes in health insurance premiums going high (Hsia, et al, 2016). Precisely, the hospital management should involve the members of a certain community before closing a hospital as this means there is sufficient community engagement thus preventing setbacks in the health care.

References

Gopee, N., & Galloway, J. (2017). Leadership and management in healthcare. Sage.

Crandall, M., Sharp, D., Wei, X., Nathens, A., & Hsia, R. Y. (2016). Effects of closure of an urban level I trauma centre on adjacent hospitals and local injury mortality: a retrospective, observational study. BMJ open, 6(5), e011700.