Duties and Responsibilities of Healthcare Professionals and Public Health Statutes

This paper discusses the various duties and responsibilities of physicians and healthcare professionals, the correct procedure for filling out birth and death certificates, the importance of public health statutes, the reporting of diseases, and the Control Substance Act in the US.

Physicians are expected to meet the need of patients and they have various duties and
responsibilities towards the health of the people. While performing their duties it is highly
essential to be effective enough in producing an accurate result. In this paper, various duties
and responsibilities of physicians and other healthcare professionals have been briefly
discussed. Apart from that, some other vital aspects of healthcare have also been described in
this paper.
During many vital events, government collects data through several studies and
surveys. The first official vital data collection in the United States occurred during the
decennial census and it took place in the year 1850. Government collects data on birth and
deaths of the population across the nation. Again, the vital statistics not only defined by
collecting data about birth and deaths, but it is also about statistics of population, morbidity,
marriage, divorce and others. In a statistics of U.S, it has been found that since 2005, the life
expectancy at birth has increased by one year across the nation (Peckham, Ananickal & Sclar,
2018). In a statistics of U.S, the researchers found that the rate of divorce also increased
among the Americans and the people who marry before 25 years are more likely to divorce
their partners (Qian, Lichter & Tumin, 2018). Again, in order to calculate the rate of domestic
violence, government collects data from the population (Johnson, Hayes, Brown, Hoo &
Ethier, 2014).
In United States, nothing arrives without paperwork even when a baby is born,
paperwork is required. A mountain of paperwork is required to accompany the joyous event.
One of the most important documents to write out is a baby’s birth document or birth
certificate. The birth certificate of any child will be one of the most vital forms of
identification which will be required throughout his life.

In order to get an accurate and error-free birth certificate, it is important to follow the
correct procedure of filling it. If the child is born in the hospital then the healthcare provider
will give the birth certificate filling form, again, if the baby is born at home, then the midwife
will have one on hand or else, the form state department of vital records (Yu et al., 2015).
The legal responsibility of the mother is to choose a child’s name. Mothers’ maiden name as
well as the current name is also required. Social security number and address of the mother
should be given and if the mother wants then details of father can also be provided in the
form. It is necessary to decide whether a social security card for the child is needed or not and
if needed, checkbox is provided at the bottom, a number will be automatically assigned to the
baby and will be sent to the address listed on the birth certificate. After providing the
demographic information the form should be provided to the healthcare provider (Dheensa,
Fenwick, Shkedi-Rafid, Crawford & Lucassen, 2016).
Again, death certificate is a permanent record to prove the fact of death which is also
required to obtain the permit of burial transit. It provides important personal information
including the circumstances as well as the actual cause of the death. The death certificate is
the main source for state and national mortality statistics which determines several aspects.
The healthcare professionals provide the death certificate to the family of the decedent after
the death. Signing and filling the death certificate is vital and it needs to be accurate. It is the
duty of the doctors to establish the fact of death to certify the medical cause of death. At the
time of providing the cause of death, it is important to be specific and avoiding abbreviations
is also necessary (Brooks & Reed, 2015). The doctor who has attended the patients in their
last illness can certify it. The name, age, medical cause and the actual time of the death
should be clearly stated in the death certificate of the decedents. It is important to be honest,
trustworthy and aware of all the clinical obligations while issuing death certificates (Mieno et
al., 2016).

In order to protect the public health and promote the wellbeing, public health statutes
work as an important tool. It is most-effectively used by the health practitioners as well as the
attorneys and advocates, in order to understand the legal framework around the field of public
health. Public health law is basically considered as an emerging field in the public health
practice of U.S. The public health laws or statutes have important consequences for the health
of defined populations across the nation. It delineates as well as establishes the mission of
public health agencies. The concept of public health law gained momentum in the 20th
century (Burris, 2015). Across the entire history of U.S public health, the indispensable role
of the law is evident. It also helps in addressing the high priorities. The laws generally
crosscheck the authority of the government at different level of jurisdiction in order to
improve the public health status. Public health regulation always involves potential trade-
offs. Apart from that law define the jurisdiction of officials and it also protects the rights of
the patients in healthcare settings. The public health statutes are essential in formidable public
health challenges as well. During any epidemic, declining vaccination situation, these laws
are effective. Highlighting the urgent need of public is always essential and with the help of
public health laws it becomes easier. Again, against any kind of public inactivity or activity
that affects the health and wellbeing such as excessive smoking and drinking, these laws are
helpful in controlling it to improve the health condition of public.
There are various reporting diseases and as per the law, the infectious diseases must
be reported to the health department or to the health advisors. Reporting makes it easy to
control and prevent it from further spreading to others. Some reportable diseases are mumps,
malaria, influenza, tetanus etc. Reportable diseases or injuries are kind of incidents that need
to be reported immediately to start the treatment. It is the responsibility of each and every
individual to report the incidence of disease and injuries to the concerned authority in order to
begin an instant treatment procedure. While reporting about the disease or injuries, it is

important to mention the date and time and at the same time, location of the incident must
also be mentioned by the reporters. Controlling and preventing any kind of infectious
diseases has been a primary health mandate. In United States, the systematic reporting of
various diseases began in the year 1874 (Simon, 2018). In the United States, the local, state as
well as national agencies require that disease to be reported. It is done when these are
diagnosed by the doctors. US have a reportable disease list which can be divided into several
groups and after collecting the data and information about the disease and injury, it is
reported.
Control Substance Act is the part of US federal drug policy. The Control Substances
Act is an act that places all substances that under the existing federal law. It is basically the
statute establishing federal US drug policy. The act also serves as national implementing
legislation. The Act was passed by the 91st United States Congress. This legislation created
five different legislations where qualification for a substance was varying. This law basically
regulates how drugs may be produced, sold as well as used in the whole United States. For
both the legal and illegal substances it may be applied. Among the five different
classifications, the first schedule includes Heroin, Hallucinogens, Marijuana and Ecstasy and
these substances have the highest potential for abuse. The second schedule include the
substances some substances that have the high potential for abuse such as Cocaine, Morphin
etc. The third schedule includes substances which have low potential of abuse. The fourth
schedule also contains substances with low potential abuse and the fifth schedule contains
substances that have lowest potential of abuse (Pacula, Kilmer, Wagenaar, Chaloupka &
Caulkins, 2014).
Healthcare is a broad area and the health and wellbeing of people is associated with it.
Professionals of healthcare perform their duties to improve the health status of people but
coordination of the general population is also important in this regard.

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