Page 479 - Solid Waste Analysis and Minimization a Systems Approach

INDUSTRY OVERVIEW 457

9 Medical and diagnostic laboratories—Medical and diagnostic laboratories pro-
vide analytic or diagnostic services to the medical profession or directly to
patients following a physician’s prescription. Workers may analyze blood, take
x rays and computerized tomography scans, or perform other clinical tests. Medical
and diagnostic laboratories provide the fewest number of jobs in the health-care
industry.

In the rapidly changing health-care industry, technological advances have made
many new procedures and methods of diagnosis and treatment possible. Clinical
developments, such as infection control, less invasive surgical techniques, advances in
reproductive technology, and gene therapy for cancer treatment, continue to increase
the longevity and improve the quality of life of many Americans. Advances in medical
technology also have improved the survival rates of trauma victims and the severely
ill, who need extensive care from therapists and social workers as well as other support
personnel.
In addition, advances in information technology continue to improve patient care
and worker efficiency with devices such as hand-held computers that record notes
about each patient. Information on vital signs and orders for tests are transferred elec-
tronically to a main database; this process eliminates the need for paper and reduces
record-keeping errors.
Cost containment also is shaping the health-care industry, as shown by the growing
emphasis on providing services on an outpatient, ambulatory basis; limiting unneces-
sary or low-priority services; and stressing preventive care, which reduces the poten-
tial cost of undiagnosed, untreated medical conditions. Enrollment in managed care
programs—predominantly preferred provider organizations, health-maintenance organ-
izations, and hybrid plans such as point-of-service programs—continues to grow.
These prepaid plans provide comprehensive coverage to members and control health-
insurance costs by emphasizing preventive care. Cost-effectiveness also is improved
with the increased use of integrated delivery systems, which combine two or more seg-
ments of the industry to increase efficiency through the streamlining of functions, pri-
marily financial and managerial. These changes will continue to reshape not only the
nature of the health-care workforce, but also the manner in which health care is
provided.
The health-care and social assistance sector comprises establishments providing
health care and social assistance for individuals. The sector includes both health care
and social assistance because it is sometimes difficult to distinguish between the
boundaries of these two activities. The industries in this sector are arranged on a con-
tinuum starting with those establishments providing medical care exclusively, contin-
uing with those providing health care and social assistance, and finally finishing with
those providing only social assistance. The services provided by establishments in this
sector are delivered by trained professionals. All industries in the sector share this
commonality of process, namely, labor inputs of health practitioners or social workers
with the requisite expertise. Many of the industries in the sector are defined based on
the educational degree held by the practitioners included in the industry.