Browsing by Author "Harle, Christopher"

Now showing 1 - 5 of 5
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    Adoption and Implementation of Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment
    (2020-06) Thoele, Kelli Marie; Newhouse, Robin; Draucker, Claire Burke; Harle, Christopher; Fulton, Janet
    More than 20 million people in the United States have a substance use disorder, resulting in negative individual and societal outcomes. An evidence-based intervention, Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT), involves screening patients to assess for substance use and then providing a brief intervention and referral to treatment when indicated. This evidence-based intervention is underutilized in healthcare settings. The purpose of this dissertation was to contribute to the body of evidence regarding the implementation of SBIRT in healthcare settings. Specifically, the aims of this dissertation were to 1) provide an overview of the evidence regarding the use of implementation strategies to facilitate the implementation of SBIRT, 2) describe implementation of SBIRT by nurses in acute care hospitals, and 3) examine individual and organizational characteristics associated with the intra-organizational adoption of SBIRT. To review the literature, a scoping review was completed on 18 articles that met the inclusion criteria. The review found that leaders often train and educate stakeholders to facilitate the implementation of SBIRT, but less attention has been given to adapting the intervention or engaging patients. Additionally, implementation efforts led to increases in screening, but the evidence regarding the effect on brief intervention is inconclusive, and evidence regarding referral to treatment is scarce. Eighteen nurses participated in a qualitative descriptive study of the implementation of SBIRT, and data were analyzed using content analysis. Participants identified barriers and facilitators associated with the nurses’ attitudes and beliefs about SBIRT, organizational factors, and patients’ response to the SBIRT process. Participants indicated that SBIRT was a useful intervention that was best implemented by providing a clear process and incorporating SBIRT into an established workflow. To examine factors related to intra-organizational adoption of a tool to screen patients for substance use, two hundred twenty-two nurses participated in a crosssectional study. Results of this study indicate that training and the perception of peer usage of the intervention were significantly related to individual nurses’ use of the intervention in practice. The findings of this dissertation can inform research and practice regarding the implementation of SBIRT in healthcare settings.
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    Evolving availability and standardization of patient attributes for matching
    (Oxford University Press, 2023-10-12) Deng, Yu; Gleason, Lacey P.; Culbertson, Adam; Chen, Xiaotian; Bernstam, Elmer V.; Cullen, Theresa; Gouripeddi, Ramkiran; Harle, Christopher; Hesse, David F.; Kean, Jacob; Lee, John; Magoc, Tanja; Meeker, Daniella; Ong, Toan; Pathak, Jyotishman; Rosenman, Marc; Rusie, Laura K.; Shah, Akash J.; Shi, Lizheng; Thomas, Aaron; Trick, William E.; Grannis, Shaun; Kho, Abel; Health Policy and Management, Richard M. Fairbanks School of Public Health
    Variation in availability, format, and standardization of patient attributes across health care organizations impacts patient-matching performance. We report on the changing nature of patient-matching features available from 2010-2020 across diverse care settings. We asked 38 health care provider organizations about their current patient attribute data-collection practices. All sites collected name, date of birth (DOB), address, and phone number. Name, DOB, current address, social security number (SSN), sex, and phone number were most commonly used for cross-provider patient matching. Electronic health record queries for a subset of 20 participating sites revealed that DOB, first name, last name, city, and postal codes were highly available (>90%) across health care organizations and time. SSN declined slightly in the last years of the study period. Birth sex, gender identity, language, country full name, country abbreviation, health insurance number, ethnicity, cell phone number, email address, and weight increased over 50% from 2010 to 2020. Understanding the wide variation in available patient attributes across care settings in the United States can guide selection and standardization efforts for improved patient matching in the United States.
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    An Examination of Opioid Prescribing Policy and Clinical Practice in the Context of the United States Opioid Crisis
    (2020-11) Danielson, Elizabeth Caitlin Anne; Menachemi, Nir; Harle, Christopher; Blackburn, Justin; Silverman, Ross
    In 2017, the United States government declared that the opioid epidemic was a public health emergency. Among responses to address the epidemic, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a set of opioid prescribing guidelines for primary care clinicians. Since their release, federal agencies and experts have been interested and concerned about their application in policy and clinical practice. This dissertation examines how some of these federal recommendations were implemented in clinic practice and state law, as well as the effects of related prescribing laws. This dissertation includes three studies 1) a qualitative analysis of clinician and patient discussions about opioid-related risks, benefits, and treatment goals, 2) a policy surveillance study of state tapering laws and their consistency with the CDC guideline’s opioid tapering recommendations, and 3) an empirical study of the effects of morphine milligram equivalent daily dose laws and acute opioid prescribing laws on pain medication prescribing for patients with Medicaid. Overall, this dissertation attempts to understand the translation of national opioid prescribing guidelines into policy and their effects on healthcare delivery.
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    Examining the Variability in and Impact of State-Level Regulations of Opioid Treatment Programs
    (2019-09) Jackson, Joanna Rachel; Menachemi, Nir; Harle, Christopher; Silverman, Ross; Simon, Kosali
    The United States is experiencing a severe opioid use epidemic with more than 2 million people currently suffering from opioid use disorder (OUD), of which, over 1 million need treatment. Opioid treatment programs (OTPs) are evidence-based modality providing comprehensive care to individuals experiencing OUD. OTPs provide counseling, medical assessments, and medication-assisted treatment, which decrease the use of illicit opioids, reduce associated deaths, criminality, and improve the psychosocial wellbeing of its patients. However, OTPs have been extensively regulated at the federal, state, and local levels with little consistency and varying degrees of enforcement across the country, particularly at the state level, creating a “regulatory fog”. This complex regulatory environment has made it challenging to study new or changing regulations and their impact on health outcomes. In order to better understand the variation of OTP regulation, this dissertation: (1) employs public health law research methods to map the entire landscape of state-level regulation of OTPs and associated state characteristics in effect on January 1, 2017; (2) examine how state-level regulations affect the delivery of care from the perspective of OTP administrators through key-information interviews; and (3) examines associations between regulatory burden and related health outcomes of individuals experiencing OUD, by state.
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    Nurse practitioner patient care patterns and practice characteristics : understanding the role of state scope-of-practice policies
    (2017-05-09) Norwood, Connor W.; Harle, Christopher; Menachemi, Nir; Stone, Cynthia; Liu, Ziyue
    Introduction: The U.S. is faced with a primary care (PC) workforce shortage; an estimated 43 percent of the population has unmet health care needs and 18.2 percent of the adult population lacks a usual source of care (USC) provider. The workforce shortage limits even those with a USC from receiving the full scope of recommended clinical services. One promising solution is reforming scope-of-practice (SOP) policies for PC nurse practitioners (NPs). Objectives: The primary objective of this dissertation was to assess the impact of NP SOP policy implementation on NP practice patterns and patient access to PC by evaluating NP time spent delivering patient care, NP role as USC providers, patient travel times, and appointment availability. Methods: The studies discussed in this dissertation leveraged cross-sectional data from the National Sample Survey of Nurse Practitioners (NSSNP), time-series data from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS), and the Nurse Practitioner Professional Practice Index (NPPPI) to quantify variations in state policy environments. We used generalized mixed effects models to examine relationships in the cross-sectional data analyses and two-way fixed effect models to evaluate longitudinal data. Results: Our analyses revealed several key findings: NP SOP policies do impact the percentage of time NPs spend providing direct patient care; the NP workforce role as USC providers has increased as SOP policies have changed; states with supportive reimbursement policies have more NPs working as USC providers; and states with fewer NP supervision requirements have shorter patient travel times to USC providers. Conclusion: The U.S. health care system must continue to evolve to address the growing demand for PC services. While strategies to increase the supply of PC providers may be an effective long-term solution, our findings suggest that NP SOP reform may be a viable and complementary strategy to increasing the capacity of the PC workforce, providing more immediate relief.