The AIDS crisis: a United States health care perspective

The unanticipated onset of Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome in the United States, followed by its gradual progression into a full-blown, uncontrollable epidemic, has had severe economic and organizational consequences for the American health care system. AIDS has taken its toll on the health workforce as well in terms of stress, anxiety and workload demands. In the absence of adequate community-based treatment and care resources for persons with AIDS, hospitals had to assume the major burden for providing basic medical care and developing the needed range of services required. This expansion of responsibilities strained hospitals and other health care agencies beyond their capabilities. Some hospitals have faced economic and allocation dilemmas because of high occupancy rates by AIDS patients since there are no specialized reimbursement rates for the intensive resource utilization required for their care. These substantial burdens underscored the need for coordinated long-term planning for a continuum of in-patient, out-patient and community support services. A major response to the epidemic has been a restructuring of the health and social service delivery systems. Hospitals have had to maintain patients beyond their need for an acute level of care, develop infrastructures to manage the increasing numbers of patients, alter physical facilities, provide educational programs and support groups to increase staff's knowledge and decrease fears of AIDS, consider alternatives to in-patient medical management, and lobby with local, state and federal governments to obtain increased public monies for AIDS treatment and care. In the past year, there has been a discernible shift to widening the network of ambulatory medical services and community-based social and health care supports. A major focus of this paper is the social and organizational impact of this epidemic on the hospital and health care system and the systems' responses. Alternatives to an acute care treatment locus for persons with AIDS are explored. Recommendations for future directions for a comprehensive, coordinated health and social services delivery network are presented.