THIRD GRADE
UNIT 1A
Medical Services
Medicine is the applied science or practice of the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of disease.
Contemporary medicine applies health science, biomedical research, and medical technology to diagnose and treat injury and disease, typically through medication or surgery, but also through therapies as diverse as psychotherapy, external splints & traction, prostheses, biologics, ionizing radiation and others.
If you get very sick or badly hurt and need help right away, you should use emergency medical services. These services use specially trained people and specially equipped facilities.
Medical institutions in Mexico
Free Medical Service in Mexico City
Hospital Services
Hospital services is a term that refers to medical and surgical services and the supporting laboratories, equipment and personnel that make up the medical and surgical mission of a hospital or hospital system.
Hospital services make up the core of a hospital's offerings. They are often shaped by the needs or wishes of its major users to make the hospital a one-stop or core institution of its local commun ity or medical network. Hospitals are institutions comprising basic services and personnel—usually departments of medicine and surgery—that administer clinical and other services for specific diseases and conditions, as well as emergency services. Hospital services cover a range of medical offerings from basic health care necessities or training and research for major medical school centers to services designed by an industry-owned network of such institutions as health maintenance organizations (HMOs). The mix of services that a hospital may offer depends almost entirely upon its basic mission(s) or objective(s).
There are three basic types of hospitals in the United States: proprietary (for-profit) hospitals; nonprofit hospitals; and charity- or government-supported hospitals. The services within these institutions vary considerably, but are usually organized around the basic mission(s) or objective (s) of the institution:
- Proprietary hospitals. For-profit hospitals include both general and specialized hospitals, usually as part of a healthcare network like Humana or HCA, which may be corporately owned. The main objective of proprietary hospitals is to make a profit from the services provided.
- Teaching or community hospitals. These are hospitals that serve several purposes: they provide patients for the training or research of interns and residents; they also offer services to patients who are unable to pay for services, while attempting to maintain profitability. Nonprofit centers like the University of California at San Francisco (UCSF) or the Mayo Clinics combine service, teaching, and profitability without being owned by a corporation or private owner.
- Government-supported hospitals. This group includes tax-supported hospitals for counties, communities and cities with voluntary hospitals (community or charity hospitals) run by a board of citizen administrators who serve without pay. The main objective of this type of hospital is to provide health care for a community or geographic region.
Complaints
Definition:
1. In legal terminology, a complaint is any formal legal document that sets out the facts and legal reasons.
2. A complaint is a description of your problem and all the procedures you have followed in order to resolve it before reaching the point where you no longer know how to proceed.
3. A complaint is defined as an oral or written expression of dissatisfaction or concern you may have about facilities or services.
4. A complaint is an expression of dissatisfaction or concern by the public, however made, about the conduct, standard of service, actions or lack of action.
Examples of complaints would be where a customer considers that there has been:
- a) Failure to provide a service at the right time or to the standard expected of the Service.
- b) Dissatisfaction in answering a query or responding to a request for a service.
- c) Failure to follow the Service’s agreed policy, orders or procedures.
- d) Failure to take proper account of relevant matters in coming to a decision. Discourteous or dishonest behaviour, harassment, bias or unfair discrimination.
A complaint will not be investigated under the following circumstances:
- a) Anonymous complaints
- b) Cases where other rights of appeal exist (e.g. special education provision)
- c) Routine requests for service (e.g. repairing a pothole in the road), UNLESS such request has been dealt with improperly or with undue delay
- d) Cases where an immediate response can be given.
Medical Complaint
If a medical patient is unsatisfied with his or her treatment at a hospital or with a general practitioner, dentist, pharmacist, optician or any other medical professional, he or she has the right to file a formal complaint. Unlike other fields, the medical field has no central database to accept complaints. For this reason, it can be very difficult to determine where to direct a complaint and what kind of outcome to expect. If you do have a medical complaint, though, filing it officially might help you or others in the future to get the medical treatment deserved.
What can the Medical Council do?
The Medical Council is responsible for protecting the public by promoting and better ensuring high standards of professional conduct and professional education, training and competence among doctors.
The Medical Council can look into complaints about individual doctors. Anyone can make a complaint to the Medical Council about a doctor.
This includes members of the public, employers and other healthcare staff. The Medical Council may also make a complaint about a doctor.
The Medical Council’s Preliminary Proceedings Committee is responsible for looking at complaints about doctors.
What can the Medical Council not do?
The Medical Council can only look into complaints about individual doctors.
The Medical Council cannot:
• Look into complaints about anyone who is not a registered doctor (for example; nurses, pharmacists, dentists, opticians,
social workers, hospitals, clinics or other healthcare organisations).
• Pay you compensation or help you make a claim for compensation.
• Give legal or professional advice orrepresentation to you.
• Make a doctor apologise to you.
• Order a doctorto do something for you such as; provide the treatmentthat you want, write a prescription for you or give
you access to your records.
• Give you a detailed explanation of what happened to you. This can only come from the doctor or healthcare provider.
• Give or arrange medicaltreatment or counselling for you.
Medical Complaint Sample Form
Download Complaint Form
