What Are the Factors That Influence Health Care Services?

Health care services have the potential to offer you hope for eventual healing, return you to a better quality of life after treatment and restore your health completely. But there are factors that can influence your needed health care services detrimentally, too. One such factor is the lack of availability of skilled personnel or equipment, the out-of-pocket costs involved with some services, your other health concerns and even the science community.

Availability

• Availability is a factor that influences health care services. Your access to transportation may limit the availability you have to some better health care services or treatments at locations not close to your home. Availability of more skilled nurses or doctors may be limited if you live in a rural geographical location or one with challenging economical conditions. Likewise, specialized equipment may be in short supply, too, reducing immediate availability.

  If you have a unique health condition, the availability of a professional who can meet your health care need may not even reside in the same country, further influencing whether you can meet a health care need.

Cost

• Personal financial situations are a factor that influences health care services, even if you have some form of insurance. Some medical doctor's offices and hospitals may refuse to treat you for certain conditions without adequate financial means or provide a less than stellar service to you than those who can afford better health care services.

  Your insurance company deductible cost--and percentages expected to be paid for services--can influence whether you personally seek medical treatment or not.

Health Condition

• Your personal health condition is a factor that can influence the health care services you receive, too. If you are in very poor health, and require surgery, your doctor may elect not to treat your condition if he feels it could compromise your life. This can, through no fault of your own--or your doctors--reduce your quality of life due to the need for a measure of safety.

Science

• You could have the money, the insurance, and the health to undergo treatment for a health issue but still be influenced by a factor that would prohibit you receiving a health care service. For example, if you suffer from a condition that is fatal, there are limits to what science and do to help you. Thus one other factor that influences health care services is whether a cure or treatment exists yet or not.