Affordable Care Act Case Study

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It has been 5 years since I have been in a clinical setting. However, in the last year that I was working in the Rheumatology clinic, it became common practice to assess every patient for current tobacco use. This was a facility wide implementation to assess for smoking and refer to smoking cessation programs if patients were willing. The implementation of this intervention was attached to the transition to an EMR system with key indicators for risk behaviors such as seat belt use, wearing helmets, regular exercise and tobacco use. I believe that many of these changes came about related to the Affordable Care Act. In researching some of the strategies put in place to prevent illness Koh & Sebelius (2010) explain that the Affordable Care Act worked to …show more content…
Other facilitators would be the EMR system automatically building these screening questions into the patient intake form. The nurses who completed the patient intake information and the physician who reviewed and further referred patients to programs for cessation also facilitated the screening. If patients answered yes to tobacco use, it automatically populated further questions related to referring to a smoking cessation program. Barriers to this practice were training and education of the staff in utilizing this opportunity to screen for and educate patients on the need for smoking cessation and its importance. There was no education done with the nurses to educate them on the need for this change or the ultimate goal in assessing these health risks. Time constraints would also be a barrier since the demands of the nurse to room patients quickly and physicians to increase their productivity may decrease the amount of attention brought to the screening and referral of this question. Many of the questions were asked because it was required but breezed