The health care system between tradition and need of change

Abstract

During the last years we have been facing several changes to which we were not prepared, despite elsewhere these changes had already been addressed. Health care costs are becoming progressively higher and somewhat unsustainable due to demographic changes that are leading to a gradual aging of our population thanks to the low birth rates and longer life expectancy. Very often, however, longer life is lived in solitude. Therefore, the larger resources invested do not match the desired health outcomes. The aging of the population, the general well-being that has eradicated many diseases, and a sedentary lifestyle that has determined other conditions, all have increased degenerative and cardiovascular diseases, as well as tumors, along with the increasing incidence of obesity and diabetes. Therefore, more organs are simultaneously affected for the same reasons and by the same risk factors. Thus, we need to start aggregating the many fragmented medical cultures to put the human being at the centre of the health care system. Therefore, we should recognize that the organizational models must adapt to the epidemiological changes. These adaptations involve different professions, doctors, and nurses that need to change their role, power, and responsibilities, as well as the approach to their work. This requires them to work not as individual actors, but as protagonists in the care of sick patients, with multiple organs affected, and no longer as purely treating the diseased organs. (Clinical_Management)