Justice in Health Care Access Measuring Attitudes of Health Care Professionals
To measure attitudes toward justice in access to health care services in managed care plans in a convenience sample of medical professionals at Clark Memorial Hospital in Jeffersonville, Indiana. Methods. A sixteen item, self-administered instrument based on Morreim's four concepts of justice in health care access was administered to 147 health care professionals, representing physicians, allied health, and hospital administration. SPSS was used to analyze the results. Results. The attitudes of the respondents were negative toward managed care. They did not feel that managed care had been a positive development in the United States or that managed care had improved access to preventive care or improved primary care. On the survey instrument, respondents scored highest on the scale measuring fairness to individual patients. Conclusion. In a convenience sample of health care professionals at Clark Memorial Hospital in Jeffersonville, Indiana, equity in distributing access to health care among individual patient needs was found to more closely meet their expectations of justice in health care access. There were no differences found across occupational groups in their responses to the two scales. There were differences in attitudes toward managed care among occupational groups.
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