Analysis of the Social Determinants of Health’s Effect on Population Health.

Analysis of the Social Determinants of Health’s Effect on Population Health.

Long Stay Nursing Home Residents with A Urinary Infection Among Black Patients.

According to Cohen et al. (2022), chronically ill people in the United States opt to stay in nursing homes residents because care is assured and easier to deliver in a controlled environment. Nursing home residents take care of all races, ethnicities, and minorities depending on location and cost. Studies show that compared to other races, minority races receive care from low-quality nursing homes that do not meet safety and quality metrics. Therefore, the measure of urinary infections among black patients determines how bad the situation often gets. Data from the Institute of Medicine (IOM) highlights that different components within nursing resident facilities decide racial and ethnic disparities.

Using undeniable data, the white-black gap created by disparities, used in quality measures, shows that the poor care delivered in nursing homes might reflect what is going on in the healthcare sector. The Institute of Medicine uses domains like socioeconomic status, education, community engagement, health and healthcare, and the state of the neighborhood to predict the quality of care delivered. Using these quality measures to disintegrate disparities across facilities in the United States has revealed solutions to eradicate racial and ethnic disparities.

How The Measure Depicts An Existing Disparity And Provide A Clear Explanation Of The Values That Defined The Measure

Urinary tract infections, commonly known as CAUTIs, when acquired within hospital stays, have become common occurrences in nursing homes, often resulting in negative outcomes like hospitalization. Data by Shaikh et al. (2022) highlights that nursing homes transfer more than 25% of their long-stay residents to healthcare facilities to be treated for UTIS at least once. The cost of care is over $14.3 billion, paid using government-funded Medicare programs. The Office of Inspector General has raised concern because most of these cases reveal the quality of care gap affecting the sector. Additionally, researchers from the University of Missouri have shown that repeated transfers are much higher among the black community.

More data revealed that demographics affect repeated transfers because black residents are four times more likely to be transferred to a hospital to be treated for UTIs annually. Repeated hospitalization is harmful because of antibiotic resistance and the weakening of the immune system due to blood infections. It is important to identify the patterns causing the high rate of infections and equip nurses in all facilities with high-level equipment and necessary skills to prevent UTIs.