Health care

 Health care

Global concentrations of health-care resources by country, as represented by the number of physicians per 10,000 people. The data comes from World Health Statistics 2010, a WHO report.

At the top, a graph of hospital beds per 1000 people worldwide in 2013;[1] NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital in New York City is one of the busiest hospitals in the world, as shown below. The Weill-Cornell facility is shown here (white complex at the center)

Health care, also known as healthcare, is the process of improving people's health through the prevention, diagnosis, treatment, amelioration, or cure of disease, illness, injury, and other physical and mental impairments. Health professionals and allied health fields provide health care. Medicine, dentistry, pharmacy, midwifery, nursing, optometry, audiology, psychology, occupational therapy, physical therapy, athletic training, and other health-related fields are all examples of professions.

Access to health care varies by country, community, and individual, and is influenced by social and economic conditions as well as health policies. Providing health care services means "using personal health services in a timely manner to achieve the best possible health outcomes." [2] Consideration should be given to financial constraints (such as insurance coverage), geographic barriers (such as additional transportation costs, the possibility of taking paid time off work to use such services), and personal constraints (lack of ability to communicate with health care providers, poor health literacy, low income). [3] Health-care service limitations have a negative impact on the use of medical services, the efficacy of treatments, and overall outcome (well-being, mortality rates).

Health systems are organizations that were established to meet people's health needs.