Discussion: Adverse health behaviors

Discussion: Adverse health behaviors

Discussion: Adverse health behaviors

You are consulting with the education and practice development team in a large tertiary care

hospital serving a region comprising mostly rural communities. The team is responsible for

strengthening the implementation of EBP based on outcomes. Over the next 2 years, it must set

performance objectives to (1) strengthen screening for pain, depression, and adverse health

behaviors (smoking, excess alcohol intake, and body mass index [BMI] greater than 30) at intake for

all adult admissions; (2) implement comprehensive geriatric assessment for all those over age 65

hospitalized for more than 7 days or readmitted within less than 3 days following discharge; and (3)

promote care-team performance.

The hospital has 200 adult admissions each week and has implemented an electronic health

record. Guideline dissemination generally occurs through educational venues or via the electronic

policy and procedure manual. The method of documentation for narrative notes is documentation

by exception using subjective, objective, assessment, and plan (SOAP) and the hospital has made

extensive use of checklists to complement the documentation system.

Discussion Questions

1. (200 words) Using clinical guidelines and standards of care, identify what data elements should be

included in the EHR assessment and evaluation screens if these goals are to be achieved.

2. (200 words) Identify how information system defaults and alerts could be used to achieve these goals.

3. (200 words) Once screening has been improved, what are the next steps in improving patient

outcomes?

4. (200 words) How could the electronic health record be designed to support these outcome-related

goals?

Please use the attached book and APA format.

You must proofread your paper. But do not strictly rely on your computer’s spell-checker and grammar-checker; failure to do so indicates a lack of effort on your part and you can expect your grade to suffer accordingly. Papers with numerous misspelled words and grammatical mistakes will be penalized. Read over your paper – in silence and then aloud – before handing it in and make corrections as necessary. Often it is advantageous to have a friend proofread your paper for obvious errors. Handwritten corrections are preferable to uncorrected mistakes.

Use a standard 10 to 12 point (10 to 12 characters per inch) typeface. Smaller or compressed type and papers with small margins or single-spacing are hard to read. It is better to let your essay run over the recommended number of pages than to try to compress it into fewer pages.

Likewise, large type, large margins, large indentations, triple-spacing, increased leading (space between lines), increased kerning (space between letters), and any other such attempts at “padding” to increase the length of a paper are unacceptable, wasteful of trees, and will not fool your professor.

The paper must be neatly formatted, double-spaced with a one-inch margin on the top, bottom, and sides of each page. When submitting hard copy, be sure to use white paper and print out using dark ink. If it is hard to read your essay, it will also be hard to follow your argument.