Health care is the Dx, Tx, and prevention of disease (also illness, injury, and other physical and mental impairments).

• Primary care, who act as first point of consultation for all Pt's within the health care system. This can be a:
  • GP
  • Dentist
  • Allied health, including:
    • Physiotherapist (PT)
    • Speech pathologist
    • Dietitian
    • Optometrist
    • Pharmacist
    • Psychologist
    • Occupational therapist (OT), which uses purposeful activities or interventions designed to achieve improved function
    • Social worker (SW)
    • Chaplains, who are ministers (pastor, priest, rabbi, imam, or lay representative) of a religious tradition, attached to a secular institution (hospital, prison, military unit, school, police department, university, private chapel). Clinical pastoral education is the training that chaplains undertake
  • Self care
• Secondary care, which is the provision of services by specialists that don't have first contact with patients, including:
  • Cardiologists
  • Urologists
  • Dermatologists
• Tertiary care, which is specialized care, usually for inpatients on referral from a primary or secondary provider. It has personnel and facilities for advanced medical Ix and Tx, such as tertiary referral hospitals. OPD stands for outpatient department. Services include:
  • Nursing staff
  • Allied health staff
  • Cancer Mx
  • Surgeons
  • Neurologists
  • Cardiologists
  • Oncologist
  • Midwifery
  • Palliative
• Home and community care, which is health care delivered outside of health facilities. This includes:
  • Interventions of public health interest, such as food safety surveillance, obesity prevention, distribution of condoms and needle-exchange programs for prevention of STD's
  • Professional services in residential and community settings, to support home living, aged care, Tx substance use disorders. NH is shorthand for nursing home
  • Birthing centers, staffed by nurses, midwives, and assisted by doulas. It presents a more home-like environment than a labor ward, with more options including food/drink, music, and attendance of family/friends if desired. There may be non-institutional furniture such as queen-sized beds, and birthing tubs/showers for water births. Should additional assistance be required, the mother can be transferred to a hospital
  • Community rehabilitation services, to assist with mobility and independence after loss of limbs
• Public health, which includes:
  • Health promotion, which is the development of healthy public policy to address prerequisites of health (income, housing, food security, employment, quality working conditions)
  • Notifiable diseases
  • Screening, which is used to identify unrecognized disease in Pt's without Sx. It is thus unique as it is an Ix done in apparently well Pt's. Screening is designed to enable early intervention, to reduce mortality and suffering. Although screening may lead to earlier Dx, it is not always beneficial, and can result in overdiagnosis, misdiagnosis, and false sense of security. Tests must therefore have good sensitivity and acceptable specificity, particularly for diseases with low incidence. Types include:
    • Universal screening, which involves screening of all people in a certain category (e.g. kids of a certain age)
    • Case finding, which is screening a smaller group of people on the presence of risk factors (e.g. family member Dx with hereditary disease)

Paperwork for "Pediatric dietitian referral" includes:

• ID information, including Pt name, Date of birth, MRN (Medical record number) (if applicable), Parent/carer name, Phone, Address
• Current weight
• Current height
• Relevant medical Hx
• Reason for referral, including tick boxes for Malnutrition/growth faltering, Confirmed food allergy (please provide copy of test results), Food intolerance, Enteral feeding, Organ complication requiring therapeutic diet, Vitamin/mineral deficiency (please provide copy of blood results), Diabetes, Fussy eating, Obesity
• Detailed reason for referral
• Name of referrer
• Phone
• Address
• Signature
• Date
• Please fax referral to Nutrition department on ___ or post to Nutrition Dept ___ Hospital

• Determinants of health
• Preventative medicine