Regulatory Agencies And Accrediting Bodies

Regulatory Agencies and Accrediting Bodies

Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) is a special agency that deals in health affairs for Americans. It works in collaboration with different other agencies of the region for the improvement and protection of health of American people. It provides technical aid to its members in the prevention of communicable and non-communicable diseases. Its overall aim is to strengthen the health system by responding to emergencies and disasters. PAHO makes sure that every individual has access to necessary healthcare. They also make sure that this healthcare is available to them in the time of need without the worry of finances. With its wide spread operations, PAHO makes sure that everyone gets their right to health in the best possible manner.

History of PAHO

A severe yellow fever academic hit Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina and Paraguay in 1870. Within Just eight years, the disease spread to the United States claiming the lives of more than 20000 individuals. The main reason behind this rapid spread was Maritime Transport, as at the end of 19th century, it was expanding rapidly along with international trade. It was the need of the hour to stop the epidemic from spreading from one country to another, in order to protect the health and economies of the people of other countries. Hence, it led to the creation of a healthcare agency that is known by the name of Pan American Health Organization (PAHO).

Purpose of Existence

The basic purpose of reason of the existence of PAHO in the healthcare industry is to successfully operate strategically designed collaborative efforts with its member states and partners in order to ensure equity in healthcare sector, Moreover, it also strives to fight diseases, along with bringing improvement in the quality of healthcare services, so that the life span of people of America can be improved. Another significant purpose of its existence in the field is to ensure that all the American citizens receive optimal healthcare and contribute towards the development of their families and community.

Operations of PAHO

PAHO basically provides technical support to its member countries present in the United States of America in order to strengthen the bonds between them and help these countries achieve their health-related goals. The basic headquarters of healthcare agency lies in Washington DC, along with sub offices in 27 countries. It also has three specialized centres located at different locations in the region.

Governance

The main governing bodies that control PAHO are the Executive Committee, Pan American Sanitary Conference, and the Directing Council.

The Pan American Sanitary Conference is the main governing body and decides all the rules and regulation to be followed in the agency. It conducts its meeting every five years to discuss the policies and procedures. Different ideas related to the prevention of diseases, the preservation, promotion and restoration of mental and physical health and the propagation of socio-medical procedures can also be discussed in this Conference. In addition to this, the body also discusses the possibilities of prevention of treatment of mental and physical ailments in the Western Region.

The Directing Council conducts a meeting once a year and acts on the behalf of Pan American Sanitary Conference, when the Conference is unable to hold the sessions.

The Executive Committee acts as an auxiliary advisory body, with the Subcommittee Program, Administration and Budget. It is mainly composed of member of states that are elected by the Conference or Council, which are total nine in number.

Financing

PAHO gets its financing through Different sources, one of the major source is quota financing from its member states. Another sources are allocations by WHO and voluntary funding by various governments and national and international organizations.

Reporting

PAHO has a systematic media centre that reports all the latest researches, programs, features, notices about alarming disease epidemic. This platform is also used for giving away news about campaigns and facts sheets. It has reporting on almost all kinds of dangerous diseases and latest outburst. Its different sections include social media, multimedia, press, photography, infographics and featured stories. Pubic reporting of all this work is important to inform people about upcoming conferences, alerts and public health stories.

Publications

PAHO has a large range of data about recent and old publications that can be sorted out by subjects. It has huge collection of online books, journals, reports, permissions and licensing. All the information related to common diseases such as diphtheria, yellow fever, influenza, measles is available on the websites.

Health care organizations

In an effort to improve healthcare among the masses, PAHO approved a resolution in 2015, titled the strategy for Universal Access to Health and Universal Health Coverage. It aimed to provide comprehensive and quality healthcare, without discrimination to all people and communities in a timely manner (Holder & Fabrega, 2015).

Nursing practice

PAHO realizes the use of nursing staff and how vital they are to the progress of universal healthcare system. Thus, it aims to pay special attention and care to the training of nurses so they can provide quality care (Mitchell, 2019)

References

Holder, R., & Fabrega, R. (2015). PAHO’S Strategy for Universal Access to Health and Universal Health Coverage: Implications for health services and hospitals in LAC. World Hospitals and Health Services: The Official Journal of the International Hospital Federation, 51(2), 4–6.

Mitchell, C. (2019, May 8). PAHO/WHO | Nursing staff are vital for making progress towards universal health. Retrieved September 28, 2019, from Pan American Health Organization / World Health Organization website: https://www.paho.org/hq/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=15138:nursing-staff-are-vital-for-making-progress-towards-universal-health&Itemid=1926&lang=en