Files and links (1)
PDFOpen Access (License Unspecified), Open Access
Dissertation
Health care inequities in Puerto Rico
Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Drexel University
Jun 2023
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17918/00001749
Abstract
There are significant health care inequities in the United States (US) territory of Puerto Rico. The local health system operates under continuous challenges, such as financial restrictions and shifts in the physician workforce. Population characteristics like pervasive island-wide poverty, substantial health care need, and poor economic conditions further burden its health care system. When coupled with frequent and increasing back-to-back public health emergencies, such as natural disasters and infectious disease outbreaks, these factors have led to an ongoing health care crisis in Puerto Rico. The multiple factors affecting health care access in Puerto Rico have rarely been studied and continue to be unclear, especially following recent major disasters such as hurricanes, earthquakes, and the COVID-19 pandemic. To help fill these knowledge gaps, this dissertation studies health care access and utilization in Puerto Rico and how they are affected by environmental, system, provider, and patient-level factors. The dissertation will be composed of three separate but interrelated papers addressing health care dilemmas in Puerto Rico by studying (1) federal health policy impact on health care access across different Medicaid funding structures, (2) physician prevalence and availability trends in Puerto Rico, and (3) crisis hotline use patterns across population characteristics.
Metrics
50 File views/ downloads
72 Record Views
Details
- Title
- Health care inequities in Puerto Rico
- Creators
- Alexandra C. Rivera-González
- Contributors
- Alexander N. Ortega (Advisor)
- Awarding Institution
- Drexel University
- Degree Awarded
- Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
- Publisher
- Drexel University; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- Number of pages
- ix, 121 pages
- Resource Type
- Dissertation
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- Dana and David Dornsife School of Public Health; Drexel University
- Other Identifier
- 991021212415204721