Activity 4

Economics

A community assessment begins with a basic windshield survey where each community subsystem is explored.  Explore how economics may influence health and develop economic prevention strategies in relation to community health levels of prevention. 

Click on the Enter Sentinel City® and continue your virtual experience by taking a bus tour of Sentinel City®.  Since this is your second tour, feel free to choose any bus speed and/or get off the bus at any time to walk around.  As you take the tour, write down your observations, specifically focused on the subsystem: economics, note sign that indicate if the city is “thriving” or “surviving”.  Meet with Mayor Hill to discuss the subsystem: economics.  Compile your observations and any demographic information addressing each item listed in the first column of the rubric.  You are encouraged to add other relevant characteristics you observe that may not be listed in the first column as you complete this activity. 

Reading and Resources

Harkness & DeMarco (2016) Read Chapters 18 & 19

Visit Scorecard: The Pollution Information Site

Visit CDC Minority Health: Other At Risk Populations

Additional Instructions:

1. All submissions should have a title page and reference page.
2. Utilize a minimum of two scholarly resources.
3. Adhere to grammar, spelling and punctuation criteria.
4. Adhere to APA compliance guidelines.
5. Adhere to the chosen Submission Option for Delivery of Activity guidelines.

Submission Option

Instruction

Paper

• 1 to 2-page paper. Include title and reference pages.

 Respond to at least two of your colleagues* by either supporting or respectfully challenging their explanation on whether there is an evidence base to support the proposed health policy they described.

  

Introduction

The demand for healthcare and the shortage of providers to offer this care, especially in geographically and economically challenged populations, has put a strain on healthcare availability. The Creating Opportunities Now for Necessary and Effective Care Technologies for Health (CONNECT) Act of 2019 looks to promote access through increased use of telehealth. 

What It Means

Currently, telehealth is limited by geography, billing and reimbursement, and provider restrictions. The CONNECT bill HR 4932, proposes removal of some or all of these stipulations to expand access to care. Specifically, the bill targets Medicare restrictions and lack of coverage to improve access to the elderly and disabled (Wicklund, 2019). 

The Evidence

The evidence to support telehealth expansion has been proven. As discussed by Totten et al., (2016) numerous studies have shown an increase in positive outcomes regarding patient/provider communication, education, and the management of chronic health conditions. Passing of this bill could provide a multitude of benefits to involved parties. 

First and foremost, it would improve access to care for those limited by age, disability, geography, or finances. Improved access to care promotes health prevention and decreases more costly care due to complications associated with delay of treatment. The expansion of telehealth could also reduce the strain placed on providers by the shortage. The bill looks to permit telehealth use by more providers and remove some of the travel and point of origin restrictions. Greater use of telehealth would also encourage better insurance coverage and reimbursement (H.R. 4932, 2019).

Conclusion

With all the changes in healthcare and the concerns over cost and accessibility, the need for legislation to address these issues cannot be ignored. The promotion of telehealth and removal of current restrictions could solve many of these dilemmas. As healthcare providers, we can continue to conduct the research and provide the evidence needed to advocate for legislative change to improve healthcare. 

 Research the role of physical activity in disease prevention or coping with the disease once it is acquired. Choose arthritis or diabetes. 

Discuss your topic, how the disease is acquired (if known) and find a way to use the national statistics within the paper.

Include 3 peer reviewed journal articles/research from credible sources to use for your research paper. (APA intext citations).  In addition, please find 2 national statistics that relate to your topic of choice.

Some examples of peer-reviewed research articles include the following:

Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation

Journal of Aging and Physical Activity

Journal of Nutrition

Statistics sites:

www.cdc.org

http://www.nih.gov/

http://www.acsm.org/

Attached is an example 

Case Study: A 65-year-old woman was just been diagnosed with Stage 3 non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. She was informed of this diagnosis in her primary care physician’s office. She leaves her physician’s office and goes home to review all of her tests and lab results with her family. She goes home and logs into her PHR. She is only able to pull up a portion of her test results. She calls her physician’s office with this concern. The office staff discussed that she had part of her lab work completed at a lab not connected to the organization, part was completed at the emergency room, and part was completed in the lab that is part of the doctor’s office organization.

The above scenario might be a scenario that you have commonly worked with in clinical practice. For many reasons, patients often receive healthcare from multiple organizations that might have different systems.

As you review this scenario, reflect and answer these questions for this discussion.