Question

Quote: “I wish that we really could put a premium on health and health creation. And that we, as a society, could reward and incentivize health creation, the same way we reward and incentivize disease care." (J. Gerberding)    

What does this statement mean to you? How do we reward and incentivize disease care? How can we change this way of thinking? Defend your answer.

Answer 1

In the given quote, J. Gerberding says her wish is to put a premium or an additional payment on health and health creation. She also goes on to say that we as a society could reward and give incentives to the people who create health in the same way we reward and give incentives for disease care. I think what she means is to reward the people or professionals who work hard for good health or for a healthy society without diseases. She points towards disease prevention, which in turn points to immunization and other such measures. As per J. Gerberding, the professionals in the immunization field need to be recognized and rewarded with incentives etc., in the same way as we reward the professionals in disease care. From my perspective, she is in tune with the statement 'prevention is better than cure' and the professionals in the prevention field should be considered equal to those in the care field and should be rewarded equally.

Financial incentives and other rewards are given to care providers and other related professionals for their contributions to disease control, care, and cure. These are important strategic elements in healthcare organizations, societies, areas etc., to promote high-quality care. Incentives are usually between 5% to 10% of salary. Though modest, this amount changes the clinical behavior considerably. Other than offering incentives to the clinicians, some organizations also recognize and reward groups for high-quality performance. A recent US study found out that organizational incentives encouraged system improvements supporting better care. Performance-based incentives are given in several healthcare organizations, which is a boon to quality disease care.

We can change the way of thinking or the approach to health creation by rewarding and incentivizing health creation and disease care equally. These are two sides of the same coin and are required to cooperate and coordinate on matters of health creation and disease prevention. So both sections should be recognized and rewarded equally to boost their morale.