Health care providers are entities that help to provide prevention, cure, promotions, care and rehabilitation related services.
Health care providers can be individuals or institutions. This care being provided could be given out to individuals, adults, children, families or entire communities. A health care professional who works in the medical fields, or in the nursing line or an allied health line could also be a health care provider. Health care providers are often also called as health workers. They could also be public health professionals or community health professionals. Health facilities on the other hand are institutions which provide medical or health care related services. These could include primary care centers, clinics, hospitals or other service delivery centers.
State authorities and provincial authorities govern and regulate the operation and practice of health professionals as well as health facilities. In addition, they also serve as regulatory systems to make sure that the health facilities conform with quality assurance requirements. Health care professionals, health care facilities and these governing bodies come together to form a comprehensive health care system.
A medical facility is a location at which medical services are provided or the practice of medicine is carried out.
On one end of the spectrum, medical facilities could be small medical clinics or doctor’s offices. They could also be urgent care centers or emergency care centers. On the other end of the spectrum, they could also be large hospitals offering emergency services or trauma centers. In many countries, a locality’s quality of life and its prosperity are also determined based on the quality and number of medical facilities established in that area. In many nations, the law regulates the operations of medical facilities to a certain extent. Before medical facilities can be opened for business, they have to procure licenses from a regulatory board.
Medical and health facilities could be owned and operated by different kinds of entities. Non-profit organizations, for-profit companies, governments and even individuals can own and operate the medical and health facilities in a country. The proportion of entities who own medical and health facilities may vary depending on the country.
Health care practitioners are individuals who are involved in providing health and medical care to other individuals – children, adults and families. These could be dentists, physicians, nurses, doctors’ assistants as well as clinical pharmacists. This could also include dietitians, chiropractors, occupational therapists, respiratory therapists, speech therapists, optometrists, medical lab scientists, midwives, therapists, speech pathologists, audiologists, prosthetic technicians, social workers, radiologists psychologists, medical technicians, emergency professionals and clinical officers. Any human resources who are in the practice of and have undergone training to provide health and medical care services to individuals are called health care practitioners.
Medical facilities could be hospitals or clinics, health care centers or other facilities where medical services are providers.
Medical practitioners work in these medical facilities. There could be medical practitioners working in the departments of medical training, academics, research and development as well as administration. Some medical practitioners also provide private medical care for some individuals in the privacy of their home. In addition to individuals working in formal medical facilities, countries have community health workers too. Health care teams also include personnel like managers who help manage these health care services, technicians involved with and assisting other personnel with details related to health care as well as other assistants.
Medical health practitioners are mostly of four kinds.
They could be medical practitioners, nursing practitioners, dentist practitioners and professionals involved in allied health services like therapies, Para medicine, pharmacy etc. Depending on their skill level and specialization of skills, practitioners are often further classified within the above mentioned four categories. Health practitioners are highly skilled professionals. They require comprehensive and specialized knowledge which requires them to have first degree or higher levels of qualification from universities. Medical health practitioners can also be classified depending on the skill which they practice.
Based on this categorization they could be related to pregnancy, mental health, childbirth, rehabilitation, surgery or public health professionals. Mental health practitioners works with individuals to help improve or treat their mental health. This could include mental health nurse practitioners too as well as psychologists and therapists.
- Other forms of practitioners are those who deal with maternal problems and newborn’s health issues. This could be before, during or after childbirth. Obstetricians, nurses, midwives are all part of this line. These medical practitioners are provided the training and have the authority to handle surgical services and administer lifesaving procedures. On the other hand, geriatric care practitioners are trained to work with the medical issues of the elderly or the disabled.