A Healthcare Program Policy Evaluation Essay

By Kadidia c tall-Waiters

During the last several years both the federal, state, local, and private organization
decided to make great investments in all areas of American society the main goals this
investments was focused on population health improvements. A lot of these goals have
included money and time, this has lead to a multi-faced groups that want to improve all
aspects of the community health wide outcome, two of those goal in the community that I
live in is:

1) 50% Reductions in smoking

2) 30% Reduction in heart disease

With these programs in place I have decided that this program does work if enough
people are willing to invest and be part of the master plan. The coalition worked together
and developed a mutual consensus based on these group focused outcomes, some of the
potential challenges, and programs that were implemented; making sure that that aligned
some of the current resources of the local community-focused organizations; and the
evidence-based interventions are tried and true programs that does have some problems,
but slowly these problems are being corrected and proper action are making them better.
As a RN I had to keep in mind that their are large monetary factor in the program
anywhere from several hundred dollars to several million dollars, this in of it self can
have a certain set of concerns, very little is known regarding this relationship between
starting the healthy improvement action and the follow-up healthiness of the community
as a whole..

I have read about other community improvement programs over the past, I have found
that they are very positive , they also work to promote change within a person or groups
behavior, these change have also worked to influence many community policies1,2 but
do not produce significant changes in health outcomes, even after ten years.3–8 Much of
the earlier literature that demonstrated positive changes in attributed to healthy outcomes
be the numbers are small or large based in the community groups size, many of the health
related studies will sometime target a specific ethnic group looking for a certain outcome,
these outcomes might be a highly specific health conditions, such as Sickle Cell anemia
in African American or Measles within the Hispanic population. A newer study has
shown that self reporting works sometimes (Covid-19), but in hot spots such as New
York self-reporting to public health officials, does not work, whereas, self reporting in
Georgia is a successful program. These activities have found that much better planning
activity will be required in the future to reduce any type of mortality and/or the spread of
these diseases.
 Other reports have shown that some of the challenges are to be expected when looking
to improve a community-based program. A lot of these communities work to implement
some of the health programs, but will not always have the resources they need to get all
of the data or measure the proper health outcomes the need. A good evaluations of the
programs will typically use easy to collect data, this will allow for a before and after
program design that can be compared to other communities, this will allow for targeted
health programs. I think that many of evaluations are not adjusted for changing trends in
habitat, it can sometime be very hard to connect programs or affect some proper changes
need in healthcare or a healthy ways, attitudes, or end results. I feel that nevertheless, the
full economic impact and funding being made related to health programs that improve the
community is more associated with rigorous research and program design.

My researched study was based on a pre and post design with the medical facility I
work at Piedmont Hospital, this medical center gave me a basis for me healthcare
comparisons for my community improvement program the program can trace its outcome
between the year of 2012–2016. Piedmont Hospital used several different studies and
healthcare, once collected they formed a single outcome and analysis, this examination
showed a specific goal that was reached, the survey provided needed information into
their community smoking program they saw a 15% reduction for the changes they
wanted, these changes showed that it could be done. My analysis also showed how
important the challenges to the over all program could be commonly used as a basis for
the pre and post design.

Research methods and outcomes

I feel that for the communities that was used for the research to be so small it must be
implemented for the program at the count, Piedmont focused on the association between
these programs and county-level health promotions outcomes. Piedmont used many
different sources of public information available to create a scale that weighed all the sets
of control data that included conducting different regression programs to seek out and
record the needed information.

Medical Data

I took the time to do an extensive world wide web search data looking for any
meaning full local based health promotions program, these searches mainly looked at the
local level, using a national search form with the CDC and NIH as one of my main
sources of information, both are government agencies that work to make the local and
federal health programs that main priority, this helps them to work to engaged the local
health boards in an effort to create a set of program policies that is in the best interest of
the county and federal system. Based on what information I was able to locate I saw that
the required information and quoted conversations from many different healthcare
professionals was indentified, leaders looked at and agreed that this information was
being used to the best of their ability. I believe that this information is something that is
well worked and is being shared throughout the nation, a focused research project allows
for the RN to look at something in particular, taking the gather information, and came up
with a positive plan that worked to lower smoking and heart disease in the research area.

One thing that I want to point out is that this research did not just point out only a
single county, it pointed out very large metropolitan communities, that this research could
benefit. I want to back track a bit, to make sure that we understand that almost 90% of all
these programs were started at the local level, local leadership was seen as having a
finger on the trigger for what happens for fails to happen in the County. Data has also
shown that this health information is based on local pin point information and track able
healthcare data. During my planning phase , this area, I learned that one of the most
critical parts of the SDLC stages, was what provided me direction for my entire research
essay would ultimately affect the total outcome of a successful healthcare program.

During the research data I was able to identify a couple of health programs in 8
different Counties in Georgia (Athens–Clarke County, Augusta–Richmond
County, Columbus–Muscogee County, Georgetown–Quitman County, Statenville–Echols
County, Macon–Bibb County, Cusseta–Chattahoochee County, Preston-Webster
County). These location were close to where I lived, also all of these Counties have a
Piedmont Hospital, where I am employed. I was able to gather information from my
organization compile it, in the end put it all together as a completed project the four
programs included in our study). The detailed information was based on Tobacco and
tobacco related products user ages 12-45 and Heart Disease from ages 12-45 as the
primary factor study group (Stamler, 2005). This information allowed for me to have a
project that showed that assessing a healthcare program, while looking at the policy
evaluation and the overall affect on the community.

Based on CDC and NIH Data, well over 1500 patient dtat was looked at in the
respected data and found that a reduction in heart disease and smoking was taking place,
this was due to education, health promotions, and medical treatment campaings.

ANALYSES

I closing I looked at a lot of data in hope of putting together the best information
possible. I was at an advantage based on working at a nation hospital chain, this hospital
has a great foothold in the community, the hospital has done a great job of informational
gathering. The good news is that many, studies have show that smokers that have the best
community support show that best chance of smoking reduction.  I have seen that many
in the community will take advantage if Piedmont’s support services to seek out a
healthier life style. The Georgia County Tobacco cessation program public health service
funded by the CDC and NIH that provides counseling services to Georgia residents of all
ages, with a special focus on the 12-45 age block.

In keeping with my research program Piedmont Hospital was able to provide me with
an analysis of the Advanced Heart Failure program I saw that much research was still
being invested into the program, Piedmont stated they have a long way to go to reach it
goal of 1-3% in it's respected community. The biggest challenge is getting the community
to understand what is required of them. I feel as if I strived to provide this best
information possible in accordance with the Walden University, and to show that my
hospital Piedmont Hospital and Piedmont Heart in keeping with the policy and rules that
CD and NIH is offering to battle these two diseases. The goal was to evaluate and
analyze these healthcare programs, to ensure a tobacco-focused program, and an heart
disease program (Higgins and Green, 2011).
.
Both of these programs, were interesting to me because it focused on a self-reporting
aspect and a medical documented healthcare outcomes (Milstead and Short, 2019).
Overall, during this research paper I learned that this two issues can also lead to other
medical concerns such as hypertension, Lower blood pressure, and diabetes, to name a
few.

Reference

Stamler J. Established major risk factors: historical overview. In: Marmot M, Elliott P,

editors. Coronary Heart Disease Epidemiology: From Aetiologgy to Public

Health. New York, NY: Oxford University Press; 2005. pp. 18–31.

Higgins JPT, Green S (editors). Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of

Interventions Version 5.1.0 [updated March 2011]. The Cochrane Collaboration,

2011.

Milstead, J. A., & Short, N. M. (2019). Health policy and politics: A nurse’s guide (6th

ed.).

www.piedmont.org/heart/services-and-programs/heart-failure/heart-failure

Https://www.piedmont.org/cessation-classes-help-smokers-beat-their-nicotine-addiction