ESSAY: Evidence Base in Design

To Prepare:

Review the Congress website provided in the Resources and identify one recent (within the past 5 years) proposed health policy.
Review the health policy you identified and reflect on the background and development of this health policy.

Post a description of the health policy you selected and a brief background for the problem or issue being addressed. Explain whether you believe there is an evidence base to support the proposed policy and explain why. Be specific and provide examples.

ANSWER

A good healthcare system is critical for any state as it means that the state’s populace is able to combat illness and hence reduce financial burdens associated with unhealthy citizenry. In the US, healthcare reforms have always resulted in political debates with changes being witnessed every time there is a change in regime. Expenses directed towards healthcare also keeps rising as a result of continued reforms. In 2018 for instance, the federal government spent close to $ 1.1 trillion on healthcare (Braunstein, 2018). Congress has recently passed many health policies geared towards improving the well-being of citizens. One such policy is the emergency Medical Services for Children Program Reauthorization Act of 2019.

Background and Evidence Base of the Policy

The policy seeks to amend the Public Health Service Act that reauthorizes the emergency medical services for the program of children. The program is a grant run by the Health Resources and Services Administration. It is meant to improve emergency healthcare, especially for children that are seriously sick or have been injured (Kraft, 2018). The bill is supposed to reauthorize through the financial year 2024. The sponsor of the policy is Sen. Casey Robert who introduced it on 11^th April 2019.

I believe there is an evidence base that can support the adoption of this policy. It was a matter of when and not why the policy had to be enacted. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, there has always been a need to come up with a program that specifically provides emergency medical care for children and adolescents in their times of need. Evidence-based approaches show that children may not be like adults and therefore, their life-saving drugs, as well as medical devices, have to be sized and made in dosages specifically for their age (Cordi & Goldstein, 2019). The personnel offering care ought to be also trained to meet the unique needs of children. The program, therefore, assures children and adolescents that their medical care is well taken care of at all times.

References

Braunstein, M. L. (2018). The US Healthcare System. In Health Informatics on FHIR: How HL7’s New API is Transforming Healthcare (pp. 13-29). Springer, Cham.

Cordi, H. P., & Goldstein, S. (2019). EMS, Federal Regulations. In StatPearls [Internet]. StatPearls Publishing.

Kraft (2018), AAP Statement on Senate Passage of Emergency Medical Services for Children Reauthorization. Retrieved from: https://www.aap.org/en-us/about-the-aap/aap-press-room/pages/AAPStatementSenatePassageEMSC.aspx

https://www.congress.gov/