The Effects of Underutilization and Overutilization
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The Effects of Underutilization and Overutilization
Social work and human service practitioners play a crucial role in ensuring proper healthcare and wellbeing to men, women, and children. Underutilization occurs due to negligence in healthcare facilities. Overutilization happens when doctors use unjustified medical treatments and impose high costs on patients. The two aspects affect the quality and safety of care. Underutilization occurs due to negligence, while overutilization is the overtreatment of patients. There are three major differences between overutilization and underutilization, including negligence/overtreatment, prevention of care/waste of treatments, and depletion of drugs/the spread of diseases. The Healthcare sector should have policies that protect patients from these adverse impacts while under care.
Both underutilization and overutilization impact are concerned with healthcare quality and care. For instance, when a patient is underdiagnosed due to negligence, care quality, and safety are compromised (Fügener, Schiffels, & Kolisch, 2015, p. 116). The patient’s health safety is also jeopardized when doctors and social workers fail to use justified treatment methods. Therefore, health workers should be keen on the type of treatment and procedures they use to ensure patients’ wellbeing.
Three differences exist between overutilization and underutilization, including negligence/overtreatment, prevention of care/waste of treatments, and depletion of drugs/spread diseases. Underutilization might exist due to doctors’ negligence. On the other hand, overutilization happens when doctors intend to justify a particular treatment. For instance, underdose may trigger setbacks when treating substance use patients. Overutilization (high costs) may prevent patients from seeking medical services. Underutilization leads to a waste of resources, while overutilization contributes to patient exploitation (Brownlee et al., 2017, p. 156). For instance, when doctors fail to use appropriate medicines and treatment methods, healthcare resources turn into waste. Overutilization of drugs also leads to depletion of drugs; when doctors keep prescribing antibiotics to manageable conditions without the prescribed drugs, it leads to exhaustion of drugs. In contrast, underutilization may increase the spread of a disease such as breast cancer when social workers fail to encourage more women to go for screening.
In conclusion, there are differences between overutilization and underutilization, including negligence/overtreatment, prevention of care/waste of treatments, and depletion of drugs/spread diseases. Therefore, appropriate healthcare policy and procedures should be placed to protect patients while seeking medical intervention. Both factors affect the quality and safety of patients. Underutilization leads to a waste of resources, increases diseases, setbacks, and happens due to negligence. Overutilization results in the exploitation of patients, thus preventing them from seeking treatment. It also leads to the depletion of drugs carelessly.
References
Brownlee, S., Chalkidou, K., Doust, J., Elshaug, A. G., Glasziou, P., Heath, I., … Korenstein, D. (2017). Evidence for overuse of medical services around the world. The Lancet, 390(10090), 156-168. doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(16)32585-5
Fügener, A., Schiffels, S., & Kolisch, R. (2015). Overutilization and underutilization of operating rooms – insights from behavioral health care operations management. Health Care Management Science, 20(1), 115-128.