Question

Please list and explain 3 commonly experienced barriers that patients face to quality care.

Answer 1

answer: The three commonly experienced barriers that patients face to quality care are:

1.High cost of care and affordability[ financial barriers]

2.Problems of access to the healthcare [structural barriers]

3.Lack of health literacy,knowledge, education ,language literacy and culturally competent care [cognitive barriers]

explanation:The explanation of each of these is given below:

explanation1. High cost of care and affordability[ financial barriers]

The quality health care involves high costs and this may not be affordable for all people,especially those from low socio economic background,irregular source of income ,lack of regular employment. The Cost of regular checkups and the emergency treatment,prescription drugs,hospitalization are very high and this may not be affordable to the the lower socioeconomic groups.They may or may not have the medical insurances and maybe unable to bear the costs of medical treatment,Investigations, physician consultation ,laboratory investigations ,drugs .the deductibles, the co pay of the insurance company,the cost of transportation, the loss of pay at work in case of leave to access the healthcare. Thus people with financial limitations may not be able to avail quality health care. This explains the financial barriers to the the experience of quality healthcare by the patient.

2.Problems of access to the Healthcare [structural barriers]

The primary care physician may not be easily available especially in the rural areas or may just be too busy to get an early appointment for the patient in the time of need. The waiting period for the physician appointment or the specialist appointment is often so long that the treatment is obtained much later and the patient suffers longer with his or her symptoms.Delayed care compromises its quality and efficacy. The non availability of good Critical Care centres or tertiary referral hospitals in some places like rural communities also contribute to lack of quality healthcare in an emergency.There may be problems related to accessible and affordable transportation for patient transfer in such cases. Low staffing also decreases the attention a critical patient gets even during emergency as there is a long waiting period noted in the emergency rooms of some hospitals with very high patient inflow and relatively less medical personnel numbers.

All these reasons make the health care, though it is available, inaccessible to the patient and explains the structural barriers to the quality healthcare

3.Lack of health literacy,knowledge, education ,language literacy and culturally competent care [cognitive barriers]

explanation:Patient population shows wide racial,cultural,educational,socio- economic variation. The education levels of the patients and their health literacy may not be the same. The knowledge about the disease conditions may not be adequate prompting them to seek medical advice in cases of disease or ill health immediately .Cultural practices,beliefs and traditions dominate part of  the patient population and affects their perception and trust in the modern healthcare system. Due to this, medical help may be sought late. Patients coming from a different cultural background may also face problems of language, problems of communication and lack of culturally competent care.

Lack of patient education, health literacy, health relevant knowledge,language literacy and a culturally competent care all contribute as barriers [cognitive barriers]patients' face in experiencing quality healthcare.

Answer summary:The three common barriers to quality health care for patients are mainly high costs or the financial barriers, the inaccessibility of health care or the structural barriers and the lack of health literacy,knowledge, education ,language literacy and culturally competent care or the cognitive barriers. In order to provide good quality healthcare to all, the healthcare system must have low costs,be affordable, be accessible, focus on health education and health literacy and include diverse cultures justly.