Health Policy Commons^™

Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (Snap) Eligibility And Access In Nevada, 2018-2020, Lana Kojoian, Annie Vong, Zachary Billot, Caitlin J. Saladino, William E. Brown Jr.

Health

This fact sheet examines data from the American Community Survey and Nevada administrative records exploring Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) eligibility and access rates for Nevada counties. The original report includes data on SNAP eligibility and access for 23 states from 2018 to 2020.

The Black Progress Index In Mountain West Metropolitan Statistical Areas (Msas), Zachary Billot, Caitlin J. Saladino, William E. Brown Jr.

Demography

This fact sheet examines data from the Brookings Institution report, “Black Progress Index: Examining Social Factors That Influence Black Well-Being” authored by Andre Perry and Jonathan Rothwell in September 2022. The Black Progress Index (BPI) score is constructed using data and social factors that impact life expectancy for Black Americans. This fact sheet compares the BPI with the actual life expectancy of Black people in Mountain West metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs). This fact sheet also examines each of the 13 variables included in the original report to present the BPI in the Las Vegas-Henderson-Paradise, NV MSA.

Physician Assistant Professional Issues: Optimal Team Practice In South Dakota, Michael J. Eggum

Honors Thesis

Optimal team practice (OTP) is a policy meant to modernize physician assistant (PA) practice laws, and one of the most controversial associated changes is removing the requirement for a PA to have a supervisory/collaborative agreement with a physician. In South Dakota (SD), there have been three OTP-related bills that failed to pass during their respective legislative sessions: House Bill 1163 from 2021, Senate Bill 134 from 2022, and Senate Bill 175 from 2023. This study was conducted as a survey consisting of 11 questions administered to SD PAs. The goal of this survey study was to determine PA understanding/disposition towards …

Breaking Down Barriers: Investigating Structural And Systemic Factors That Contribute To Covid-19 Disparities In African American Communities In New Jersey, Fazal Choudhary, Suraj Pothineni

Rowan-Virtua Research Day

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has affected the lives of millions of Americans; however, minority communities have been hit the hardest as infection rates continue to sky rocket and new variants arise. As of October 5, 2021, the CDC reports that African Americans make up a similar share of cases relative to the overall population, at about 12%, but have a significantly higher rate of deaths compared to the population, at approximately14%. African American communities are being disproportionately affected because of higher incidence of chronic diseases, inadequate access to health care, and poorer living and working conditions, which increases their vulnerability …

Association Of Prenatal Depression With New Cardiovascular Disease Within 24 Months Postpartum., Christina M Ackerman-Banks, Heather S Lipkind, Kristin Palmsten, Mariah Pfeiffer Rn, Mph, Catherine Gelsinger Rn, Katherine Ahrens Mph, Phd

Population Health

No abstract provided.

Developing The Food Navigator Role At Everyone's Harvest, Chase Rodriguez

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

Everyone’s Harvest (EH) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit that operates farmers’ markets. In order to reduce hunger in Monterey County, Everyone's Harvest offers several food assistance programs for low-income people including the Market Match (MM) incentive program which matches CalFresh money, modern day food stamps, dollar for dollar. The problem is that in Monterey County 1 in 4 adults and 1 in 3 children are food insecure. The purpose of the Food Navigator (FN) at EH is to engage with the local community and connect low-income people with food assistance resources, primarily the MM program. This project was a role development …

The Pink Tax: A Comparative Case Study Between Tennessee And Washington State, Megha Chitturi

Baker Scholar Projects

The imposition of an additional luxury tax on menstrual health products, otherwise referred to as the “Pink Tax” or the “Tampon Tax”, is present in some states while absent in others. The decision to repeal such a tax is one that has proven to be critical, as it removes the connotation that such products are of “luxury” and make them more accessible to menstruators throughout the state. As of 2023, twenty-three states have eliminated the tax. The state of Washington falls under that parameter while Tennessee does not. The purpose of this undergraduate honors thesis is to explore the potential …

Serving American Veterans: A Review And Analysis Of Gaps In Service In The Needs Of Veterans, Mary Elisabeth Germann

Baker Scholar Projects

The United States Department of Veterans Affairs is the agency of the federal government that is responsible for providing benefits, health care, and cemetery services to US military Veterans and their families. About a quarter of the nation’s population, approximately 70 million people, are potentially eligible for VA benefits and services because they are veterans, family members, or survivors of veterans. Due to this expansive demand, the United States has developed the most comprehensive system of Veterans assistance programs in the World. But many argue that the US VA still falls short of expectations and fails to fulfill the needs …

The Development Of Health System Resiliency: How Kenya's Experience With Malaria Impacted Its Reaction To The Covid-19 Pandemic, Zoe A. Ward

Baker Scholar Projects

Public health scholars have recently focused on health system resiliency to explain how previous experiences dealing with public health crises impact the healthcare sector, public behavior, and policy response to novel crises. However, it is unclear how resiliency develops. This study contributes by testing whether a health system’s experience with a health emergency and significant interventions impacts the response to a novel crisis. This research asks, “How has Kenya’s experience with malaria impacted its response to COVID-19?” Using the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Malaria Indicator Survey (MIS), I develop a malaria adherence score to measure county-level compliance …

Ballad Health: Understanding Appalachia’S Regional Healthcare Monopoly, Meredith A. Bailey

Baker Scholar Projects

The Ballad Health merger of 2018, which combined the now 21 hospitals in the region under one organization, has impacted the healthcare landscape in Northeast Tennessee and Southwest Virginia. Historically, Appalachia has had to persevere through primary physician shortages, a lack of specialty care, geographic obstacles to accessing healthcare, challenges related to substance abuse, and much more. Since the merger of Mountain States Health Alliance and Wellmont Health System, little research has been done to assess the perceived impact the aggregation of providers has had on the population it serves. This study utilizes an online survey to better understand the …

Ambulance Deserts: Geographic Disparities In The Provision Of Ambulance Services [Chartbook], Yvonne Jonk Phd, Carly Milkowski Mph, Zachariah Croll Mph, Karen Pearson Mlis, Ma

Emergency Medical Services (EMS)

This chartbook begins with a broad overview of ambulance services including common types of organizational structure(s) and workforce and reimbursement issues. The methods section provides our definition of ambulance deserts and describes how ambulance deserts are illustrated in the national and state maps. The results section begins with an overall description of the prevalence of ambulance deserts in rural and urban counties across the 41 states for which data were available at the time, and the variation in the percent of people living in ambulance deserts across the four census regions. States are ranked in terms of the percent of …

Policies To Improve Quality In Virginia’S Nursing Homes: The Role Of Local Labor Markets, Lillian Pope

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Nursing home quality of care has long been a policy concern. With invested interest from Medicaid as the primary payer for long-term care services, policy is continually being introduced at the state and local level to improve this quality of care. In Virginia, a Value-Based Purchasing (VBP) policy has been implemented to incentivize nursing facilities to perform well on six quality of care metrics. Previous research suggests VBP implementation and performance varies from facility to facility. How do local labor market conditions affect nursing home quality of care? In an attempt to fill the gap in the literature examining the …

Evaluating Community Based Trauma Among Behavioral Health Workers, Leslie M. Santillan Pina

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

Due to the national lack of service providers, current providers are experiencing high levels of stress/trauma because of workload, expectations, and the emotional toll these essential jobs have. Monterey County Behavioral Health Bureau is a public government agency that provides mental health services to the community. The purpose of this capstone is to allow clinicians to express the factors that contribute to the stressors of their jobs in hopes of creating change that will alleviate the trauma they experience. This project had three focus group interviews and one key informant interview that gave expected results based on the contributing factors …

When The Rural Hospital Closes: An Analysis Of Acute Health Impacts Following Closure Of Rural Hospitals In Appalachia, Bret M. Berry

Chancellor’s Honors Program Projects

No abstract provided.

The Continuing Rise Of The Opioid Epidemic In Appalachian Regions: A Public Health Analysis Of Regional Programs And Potential Solutions, Holly Frye

Undergraduate Honors Theses

The purpose of this study is to closely analyze opioid overdose response efforts on county, state, and federal levels in designated Appalachian regions in order to better understand program methodology standards that ensure success in combating the opioid epidemic in Appalachia. All data sources used are publicly available and contain de-identifiable population health information. During research on this topic, how to define the opioid epidemic, identification of root causes, and existing response effort methodology were addressed. The existing response methods of county, state, and federal programs are expensive and hard to implement with limited success. While the complexity of response …

A Concept Analysis Of The Patient Experience, Tanja Avlijas Rn, Mscn, Janet E. Squires Rn, Phd, Michelle Lalonde Rn, Phd, Chantal Backman Rn, Phd

Patient Experience Journal

Patient experience, an essential indicator of quality patient care, is of increasing importance to hospitals that want to improve and maintain strong patient experience metrics to remain competitive in the business of healthcare. The aim of this study was to clarify the concept of the patient experience by identifying its existing definitions, methods of measurement, and underlying themes and attributes, to differentiate it from similar concepts and propose an operational and theoretical definition to guide valid and reliable development of future assessment tools. Walker and Avant’s eight-step methodology served as the framework for this concept analysis. A literature search, using …

The Proposed Eu Directives For Ai Liability Leave Worrying Gaps Likely To Impact Medical Ai, Mindy Duffourc, Sara Gerke

Faculty Scholarly Works

Two newly proposed Directives impact liability for artificial intelligence in the EU: a Product Liability Directive (PLD) and an AI Liability Directive (AILD). While these proposed Directives provide some uniform liability rules for AI-caused harm, they fail to fully accomplish the EU’s goal of providing clarity and uniformity for liability for injuries caused by AI-driven goods and services. Instead, the Directives leave potential liability gaps for injuries caused by some black-box medical AI systems, which use opaque and complex reasoning to provide medical decisions and/or recommendations. Patients may not be able to successfully sue manufacturers or healthcare providers for some …

The Effects Of Multiple Micronutrient Fortified Beverage And Responsive Caregiving Interventions On Early Childhood Development, Hemoglobin, And Ferritin Among Infants In Rural Guatemala, Alysse J. Kowalski, Victor Alfonso Mayen, Silvia De Ponce, Kaley B. Lambden, Nick Tilton, Lisa M. Villanueva, Ana M. Palacios, Greg A. Reinhart, Kristen M. Hurley, Maureen M. Black

Department of Health Policy and Community Health Faculty Publications

Undernutrition and a lack of learning opportunities can jeopardize long-term growth and development among infants in low- and middle-income countries. We conducted a 6-month 2 × 2 cluster-randomized trial to assess the effects of multiple micronutrient-fortified beverages and responsive caregiving interventions among infants 6–18 months in 72 community sectors in southwest Guatemala. We administered baseline and endline assessments of childhood development (Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development) and socioemotional development (Brief Infant Toddler Socio-Emotional Assessment) and measured ferritin and hemoglobin on a subsample. The trial was analyzed using linear mixed models. At the baseline, the mean age (SD) was …

Comparing Levels Of Situational Empathy Based On Medium Of Exposure To Covid-19 Mortality Information And Proximity To Others, Beth Durkin

Honors Projects

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, many people expressed a lax attitude to the policies put in place to keep the public safe despite the high risk of infection and its devastating effects on health across the United States. It is possible that this response may be partially due to a “numbness to numbers,” a phenomenon that describes diminished empathy for a large group of people experiencing a negative event (eg. COVID-19). The present study explored the relationship between levels of situational empathy and the medium of exposure to COVID-19 mortality information (eg. personal story or fact sheet) in an …

A Better Life: Factors That Help And Hinder Entry And Retention In Mat From The Perspective Of People In Recovery, Adam D. Baus, Martha Carter, Jennifer Boyd, Erin Mcmullen, Trey Bennett, Alexandra Persily, Danielle M. Davidov, Christa Lilly

Journal of Appalachian Health

Introduction: Opioid addiction and opioid-related overdoses and deaths are serious public health problems nationally and in West Virginia, in particular. Medication-assisted treatment (MAT) is an effective yet underutilized treatment for opioid use disorder (OUD).

Purpose: Research examining factors that help individuals succeed in MAT has been conducted from provider and program perspectives, but little research has been conducted from the perspective of those in recovery.

Methods: This study, co-developed with individuals in recovery, took place in West Virginia-based MAT programs using an exploratory sequential mixed methods approach. The survey was open February through August 2021. Data were analyzed late 2021 …