Law of Demand

The law of demand is one of the most basic principles of economics. Most economic theories however is based on the concept that the consumer would always make the most logical and prudent choices when faced with a decision what will provide them some satisfaction (Getzen, 2010). With everything else being constant, quantity is inversely related to price. This concept can be used to predict consumer behavior and can be applied in health care to the behavior of patients. Other factors however affects the law of demand such as income, preferences or tastes, and expectation but ultimately the most deciding factor in price. Understanding these pattern on a time period can help health care administrators be able to have data to shape the products they are supplying by either increasing or decreasing services based on demands (Instituite for HealthCare Improvement, 2015). This gap between services rendered and demand by patients is a major contributing factor to delays in meeting patient’s needs and can generate considerable waste in the health system.

      To illustrate I am doing a 4 week rotation at a small healthcare institution that caters to a wide array of patients. With all the changes in healthcare and the increased emphasis on preventative care, the clinic has noticed an increased demand for patients that just want to do a wellness physical usually every 6-12 months. This demand for basic assessment of patients means that this physician decides that most medical student can accomplish this task adequately and she does not have to spend as much time at the clinic seeing every patient so as a result her demand for medical students doing clinical rotations in her office increased. Now a couple of years ago she only accepted a couple of students a year as she was always reluctant to work with student, but the amount of patients she sees were not as much, but with the increase in patient needs for physicals and wellness checks she increased the amount of medical...