The Healthcare Professional of the Future: Function Based upon Competence

Abstract

There is an ongoing evolution in healthcare in the U.S., a metamorphosis that may continue indefinitely. The most immediately identifiable change is an economic one that is generally classified as cost containment. Notwithstanding the important financial redirection in healthcare, there should be a functional reevaluation of various professionals as well. This is already ongoing and certainly will continue. In order to preserve authority and economic benefit, enhanced interprofessional boundaries are expected byproducts of a cost-containment approach. Hence, advancement toward the healthcare system of the future is destined to take a convoluted path that is influenced in an infinite number of ways by the professions themselves, the federal government, and society. We should be reminded that patients are best served by the competent performance of a task which is often independent of any given profession.