County Hospitals
While some hospitals offer specialized medicine, many county hospitals offer generalized care. County hospitals tend to be large, as they usually service a wide geographical area. County hospitals are public hospitals and generally receive funding from local, state and federal government. While this funding can often assure a hospitals ability to run, it can also mean that state and local government can dictate the County hospitals activities. For example, the state may not allow an inner city County hospital to hand out clean needles to drug addicts, even if studies confirm that clean needles will prevent the spread of disease. The government will not allow needles to be handed out because it would conflict with their drug laws, effectively giving people the tools to break the law. The federal government, like big business, tends to interfere in all matters that pertain to funds received from the federal government, even though it is essentially public money. The public’s money, whether received from local or federal government, should simply be used to aid the public, no matter what the federal government has to say about an issue.
County hospitals often depend on government funding and could often not survive without those funds. Government funding helps ensure that County hospitals continue to provide medical care to those in the geographic region, but also provides some job security to those professionals working in the hospitals. Government funding allows for research in County hospitals that can effectively aid in medical advancement. However, in providing that funding, government often dictates what research can be done at a county hospital, often prohibiting any research that may present conflicts with federal or state law.
Government funding of county hospitals can be a great example of conflict of interest. For example, in California, hospitals may wish to conduct research on the effectiveness of medical marijuana as a treatment for eating Disorders. While this research may prove valuable whether to prove or disprove the theory, the federal government may prohibit their funds form being used in such a study. The government may even withhold funding from a County hospital that does research using funds acquired in other ways simply because they do not want that research conducted.
Hospitals should be able to conduct the research that will most benefit people in their area. County hospitals often face a huge range of medical issues because counties often encompass rural, urban and suburban residents. These medical issues will vary greatly from county to county and from state to state. Government interference within county hospitals, can prevent patients from getting the medical care that they are entitled to. Patients may chose a private hospital over a county hospital, simply to avoid government interference in their health care. When a patient chooses to go to a county hospital, they should be able to have access to the same programs that a private hospital offers, such as needle exchanges and certain medical studies.
