Evidence-Based Practice for Patient-Centered Care and Population Health

 

Evidence-Based Practice for Patient-Centered Care and Population Health

 

Introduction

First, population health can be defined as the health outcomes of a particular group of people as well as the distribution of the health outcomes among the group. These groups can be viewed as geographical population distribution in terms of communities or nations. Still, they can also be classified in terms of other groups such as ethnic groups, prisoners, employees, disabled individuals or any other group that can be well defined. It is also essential to understand that the health outcomes of a population are of great importance to policymakers in both the private and public sectors. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)  believes that population health is a precise way through which a nation’s health department can customize a population’s health outcomes to link such outcomes with policy changes and care practices that occur locally. The approach relies on partnerships among various sectors of a community including public health, health care, academia, industry and local government entities. Also, the population health helps these entities identify the critical health concerns of a particular population into focus which is essential in addressing how the healthcare resources are allocated to address such problems that result in poor health. Therefore, for a nation to improve its population’s health outcomes, the local, state and national governments must move beyond clinical interventions, especially with high-risk populations.

Evidence-Based Practice for Population Health and Patient-Centered Care

The health needs of a population cannot be met or measured without the consent of its characteristics and size. Demographic is concerned with understanding population dynamics: how people respond to changes to the interplay between mortality, migration and fertility. This understanding is important in estimating the future size and structure of a population which should rely on the health care plan. This analysis is necessary as a review of the past. For example, the number of older adults in the community depends on death’s risks and births nine of ten decades throughout the period (Slater et al., 2017). Demographic is mostly interested in with answering the questions about how population change as well as their measurement. The scope empress questions like; how did the population change occur? What are the consequences? This paper focuses on the evidence-based population improvement plan in the community addressing the problem of diabetes. It also focuses on the increased rate of development of type 2 diabetes in the black Americans that call for the necessary innovative approaches to deal with ailment.

Diabetes is an illness that occurs due to an increase in blood sugar level in the body. It suffices to remark that the body acquires its energy from the sugar in the blood, and therefore, blood sugar is the primary source of power in the human body. However, the pancreas produces insulin necessary for getting the glucose in the body system respiratory activities. When the human body fails to produce enough insulin, the condition is known as diabetes type 2. Lee et al., 2018 argues that sometimes it is when the body fails to use insulin provided appropriately. Therefore, there is too much sugar in the blood that cannot travel to the cells and tissues, and organs needed to produce energy. If this case persists, there are risks such as health problems that are associated. The issues include damages of the nerves, cardiac problems, eye problems and kidney diseases.

It is worth noting that diabetes type 2 can develop in the human body at any stage or age of life. It is common in the people of middle age and the old (40 years and above). Additionally, in America, African Americans develop this type of diabetes more than whites. There is no vivid explanation for this racial disparity in African Americans being prone to diabetes. However, several factors contribute to why the problem affects these group a lot more than the others. The factors include; physiological, environmental, social-economic, genetic composition, and behavioural factors are some of the contributors. Also, black Americans have poor glycemic control.

Demographic, Environmental and Epidemiological data

`Diabetes has impact approximately thirty million individuals in the United States alone. This disorder is associated with complications such as kidney complications, heart failure, and blindness. According to Engle et al., 2020, diabetes makes human beings vulnerable to infections leading to amputation of human limps. In black Americans populations, a large number of adults are diagnosed with diabetes. Golden et al., 2017, Says that about 27.1 % of the adults have type 2 diabetes. Therefore, according to the national diabetes surveillance system, 25 of every 100 adults diagnosed with diabetes had type 2 diabetes. The statistics are amongst different races for both men and women. Also, the report indicated that the contributor of the type two diabetes is genetic and environmental factors. They assessed why the insulin is not produced or what influences metabolism within the body, and pollutants are found to be major active factors. Other factors include family history that was determined ass critical in causing diabetes.

In the evaluation of epidemiological and environmental data, gaps have been raised regarding type two diabetes. There is no available information In the CDC department about the African American who lives in the government reserves. Environmental pollutants have been evaluated, and some of the blame has been about behavioural factors. It is hard to identify diabetes disorder patterns when we have these gaps and a disparity in the overall data.

Ethical plan

CCM, which is short for Chronic Care Models, is a widely accepted structure about diabetic management. It has been effective for other chronic diseases management and also our case of diabetes. According to Parks et al., 2017, the CCM model has featured several elements and attributes such as delivery system designs, robust health system and support for decisions, information design for clinics, and self-management system and community resources the administration more effective. Therefore, there are a set of assumptions that adjudicate the mandate of the framework. They include the following; the ability of the model to sustain the needs of the black Americans, the requirement should correspond to available evidence-based guidelines for the care of the patient, the model should be affordable, cost-effective to the black American patient, the model should be concerned with the requirements of the patient to improve the patient’s lifestyle., and the model should be ethical equitable and sensitive to organizations culture to promote the disadvantaged in the community.

Moreover, the elements and assumptions work together CCM to achieve a practical model (when the model is affected in the public health management) to permit the community to work hand in hand with the clinical team to achieve the results. The model should embrace the following critical elements to achieve the outcome:

• Educate health care providers on the principles of CCM and its culture.
• Develop a system that will help in tracking results and collecting data in the affected population.
• Develop strong leadership that employ staff conversant with African American patient’s ethnicity.
• Share critical data with other health care systems.
• Connect with the patent by identifying available local resources
• Form a team that will take care of issues and problems and make recommendations at every meeting

Justify the value and relevance of evidence used as the basis of a populations health improvement plan

Evidence-based medicine involves three key aspects: clinical expertise, research-based evidence, and patient preferences and values. In other words, it is important to recognize that clinicians tend to accumulate knowledge, clinical skills and experience over the years of clinical practice. Therefore, clinicians need to use evidence-based medicine in the current healthcare environment since the approach allows them to attain the Triple Aim’s objective of improving the quality of care and patient satisfaction levels while reducing care costs.

Also, evidence-based medicine allows healthcare providers to evaluate the strength of evidence, including the benefits and risks of ordering a diagnostics test and the treatment of patients. When combined with the provider’s clinical knowledge and experience, this approach plays a critical role by allowing clinicians to assess better and predict the treatment outcomes will be good or bad. In other words, the use of evidence aids the clinicians to minimize errors that are likely to harm the patients during care provision. It also plays a significant role in helping organizations establish a systematic approach towards providing care for patients with unique conditions such as prostate cancer, diabetes, and heart failure. It is also essential to appreciate the fact that evidence-based medicine does not only entail the use of evidence to design a treatment plan; it also aims to boost dialogue between providers and patients so that patients are free to share in the decision-making process and make their needs, preferences and values known. In essence, the patient and provider can establish a reasonable cause of action during the treatment process. The advantage of using evidence is that the providers are expected to listen to the patients’ concerns and integrate the same in the decision-making process for better treatment plans and outcomes. Besides improving the quality of care and overall outcomes, the use of evidence has also known as a way through which to improve accountability, value and transparency.

Evidence that will offer support to the health plan

Considering which roadman through which the program takes shape, taking guidance of the individuals involved in the program, and communicating with different stakeholders will support the health improvement plan. The communication will pass relevant information to the group affected. According to Lee et al., 2018, to realize how effective the program is in achieving its mandate, it is essential to analyze data from the improvement plan.

Evaluating the achievement of plan outcomes

It is essential to define, identify, and assess standards effective in evaluating the plan to determine the results of the model effectively. The use of the following measures to help with the evaluation of the program, measurement of the clinical processors and indicators, signs of the health care and economic exploitation, assessment of the patient satisfaction with the plan, impact on recognized community health disparities, functional and quality status of health (Slater et al., 2017). It is critical to adopt a communication strategy to realize the effectiveness of health improvement care. This will help coordinate care across the different community, settings, various care providers, and members.

Criteria for evaluating population health improvement plan

In the clinical context, evaluation criteria determine the worth or value of health improvement plan by judging the outcomes against explicit and predetermined standards. Measurable data plays a role in identifying both the functional and ineffective features of a healthcare initiative. Also, evaluation helps secure government funding, a requirement for organizations enrolled with Medicare and Medicaid populations. Specific pre-requisites exist in the evaluative framework, which allows track using the Triple Aim, and the design is evaluated against the health system.  It helps allocate resources for population health improvement, which requires the entire population to make necessary adjustments in the primary and ancillary care systems.

So, the criteria for appraising population health improvement plan majors in three key areas. First, evidence-based research should be good enough to help the clinicians in the decision-making process, especially on whether they should implement an intervention plan. Thus, if the research is established to be good enough, it should help quantify and confirm the causal relationship between a particular intervention plan or program and its effects where such a relation exists. In other words, good research can help the clinicians to determine why a given intervention plan appears to be effective.

Moreover, there is a need to identify the intervention outcomes. An assessment of the appropriateness of a particular intervention plan should include an evaluation of its outcomes. The appraisal criteria should help the clinicians to identify whether the evaluated outcome of the health population intervention plan includes (a) the interests of the individuals involved in the decision making process and delivery of the propose intervention plan and the people who are affected by it; (b) anticipated as well as unanticipated effects of a given intervention plan and whether beneficial or not; (c) the effectiveness of the intervention plan and its efficiency. Finally, the evidence-based research should be convertible to benefit the potential recipients of the proposed intervention plan (groups or health population). In essence, it is important to recognize the applicability and value of a health treatment plan should rely depend on the knowledge of other similar, analogous or identical intervention plans, usually implemented and appraised at a different context or setting. Critical information while assessing the transferability of evidence about a population health improvement plan is the interaction between the health improvement plan and its context.

Strategy for Communication

It is worth noting that the population health improvement components can be achieved when the communication is made active. Language barriers, distrust, ineffective education methods, cultural incompetence, and misunderstanding are common communication barriers in the health improvement plan. Therefore, to make the communication more effective and make it strong, it is essential to develop a strategy that will put in place to remove these barriers. CCM to achieve the effective communication strategy, it is necessary to train care workers to the culture of the patients, stress on the importance of the interaction between the providers and the patient as well as to conduct community meetings that inform the press about the presence of the care workers in the community. It is also important to recruit caregivers that are conversant with the wide use of languages.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the health care providers in the affected areas should work together to manage the increasing cases of such disorders to create a safe environment by implementing the best interventions. The so-called intervention should purpose the society’s nature, such as ethical, cultural, and guidelines within the community to be effective. CCM models should be adopted to manage chronic ailments as they effectively offer racially sensitive care for the organizations. Hence, healthcare providers adapt to the new approaches that help them change in the long-run.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

References

 

Engle, R. L., Mohr, D. C., Holmes, S. K., Seibert, M. N., Afable, M., Leyson, J., & Meterko, M. (2020). Evidence-based practice and patient-centred care: Doing both well. Health Care Management Review.

Golden, S. H., Maruthur, N., Mathioudakis, N., Spanakis, E., Rubin, D., Zilbermint, M., & Hill-Briggs, F. (2017). The case for diabetes population health improvement: evidence-based programming for population outcomes in diabetes. Current diabetes reports, 17(7), 1-17.

Lee, J. A., Choi, M., Lee, S. A., & Jiang, N. (2018). Effective behavioural intervention strategies using mobile health applications for chronic disease management: a systematic review. BMC medical informatics and decision making, 18(1), 12.

Parks, R. G., Tabak, R. G., Allen, P., Baker, E. A., Stamatakis, K. A., Poehler, A. R., … & Brownson, R. C. (2017). Enhancing evidence-based diabetes and chronic disease control among local health departments: a multi-phase dissemination study with a stepped-wedge cluster randomized trial component. Implementation Science, 12(1), 122.

Slater, H., Campbell, J. M., Stinson, J. N., Burley, M. M., & Briggs, A. M. (2017). End-user and implementer experiences of mHealth technologies for noncommunicable chronic disease management in young adults: a systematic review. Journal of medical Internet research, 19(12), e406.