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- Creator:
- Mbamalu, Uzodimma
- Description:
- This qualitative study attempts to discover the risk factors associated with Elder Abuse and the best practices for successful implementation in the Long Term Care Industry. The body of related literature highlights the 30 year history of major US policies that address Elder Abuse, and the theories that help give a better understanding on the causes that are associated with this issue. The researcher employed a non-experimental approach with the use of Hermeneutics and content analysis as the primary tools for conducting this study. The findings of this study proved current legislation against Elder Abuse as well as various prevention strategies conducted by state Adult Protection Services (APS) and other programs have not been effective in protecting Elders from Abuse. Recommendations include Employment of Uniform APS Reporting Laws, Development of Routine Elder Abuse Screening/Training Programs, and Further Research and Investigation in order to assist in developing more effective policies and practices for Elder Abuse in Long Term Care facilities.
- Resource Type:
- Masters Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- Bakersfield
- Department:
- Public Policy and Administration
- Creator:
- Washington, James (Dion)
- Description:
- Organizations operate in changing environments that require detailed action plans in order to remain competitive. Strategic management is the facilitation of change within an organization. In managed care settings, where rapid change takes place, strategic planning focuses on short term goals and action plans because change needs to take place as quickly as possible. This research study focuses on a 418 bed, acute care medical center, located in the central valley of California. The hospital in this study has decided to organize a strategic management program to implement a strategy that will address the changing needs of its community, employees and patients. The purpose of this research paper is to develop an implementation evaluation tool for an acute care hospital. Program theory, systems theory, organizational theory and implementation theory were all considered in the development of the implementation tool. The evaluation tool will allow the studied organization to gather significant data to properly evaluate the implementation process. By using the developed tool to evaluate the performance of the strategic planning process this organization can ensure that the time, energy and resources used to create its strategic plan will not be wasted. The developed tool should be used on an optional basis, issued to all employees two weeks before the actual implementation of The Hospital’s strategic plan. Additionally, the developed tool should be administered by an individual who was not involved in the strategic management process.
- Resource Type:
- Masters Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- Bakersfield
- Department:
- Public Policy and Administration
- Creator:
- Tilley, Tamara A
- Description:
- Recent legislative efforts, including the Accountable Care Act and the Mental Health Parity Act, represent attempts to improve and integrate care delivery systems in the United States. These efforts to reduce costs while improving the quality of, and access to, physical and psychiatric health care provide us with a renewed hope for the treatment of alcohol use disorders. The treatment of alcohol use disorders is one distinct area of unmet need that may benefit from an integrated model of treatment and care. The Chronic Disease Management model is gaining in popularity and research efforts have established its effectiveness in the treatment of chronic diseases. Standardized measures are proving effective in screening for alcohol use disorders and thereby increasing our ability to identify these individuals. Alcohol use is a risk factor that, when controlled, can reduce the impact of chronic diseases. This combined with the identification of addiction as a chronic, relapsing, progressive disease suggest a strong case for the application of a chronic disease management model under the chronic disease management model. This paper will endeavor to conceptualize a program proposal for the treatment of AUDs under a chronic disease management program.
- Resource Type:
- Masters Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- Bakersfield
- Department:
- Public Policy and Administration
- Creator:
- Tarver, Kelley Kristina
- Description:
- For decades, a multitude of men and women have fought for women’s equality in regards to various aspects of life. Legislature not only gave women the right to vote, but the opportunity to be awarded the same privileges as men in athletics and higher education. For years, women were treated as subordinates compared to men. Women were thought to lack the physical abilities that men possessed in order to compete athletically in sports. For some time it was believed that a woman would hurt herself if she exerted too much energy. Beliefs like these led women to be denied the right to participate in athletics let alone go to college and do so. After years of protest women slowly gained the opportunity to compete as men did. In 1972 Congress passed Title IX of the Education Amendments which stated that no person would be discriminated against on the basis of sex. The goals of the program included to accomplish gender equality for women in sports and reduce the number of institutions who were not in compliance. Title IX is overseen by the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights (OCR). This department has been in charge of making sure that universities around the country abide by the rules and regulations of Title IX. In order to do so the department judges compliance by a three prong test. These prongs were implemented in order to help determine who was in compliance and who was not. Many have debated over whether or not Title IX has accomplished its original goals. Numerous studies have been conducted over the years in order to clear up the matter. This program evaluation reviewed various pieces of literature previously done in regards to Title IX and discovered that the participation rates for women had grown. The evaluation also discovered that there was room for improvement as the number of male participants still greatly outnumbered the number of women. Recommendations were made at the conclusion of this study such as implementing better record keeping of non compliant schools, supporting a larger OCR staff, improving Title IX education training, and closing the overall operating budget gap between males and females. The results from this evaluation will hopefully provide information as to how to go about improving the effectiveness of Title IX in the near future.
- Resource Type:
- Masters Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- Bakersfield
- Department:
- Public Policy and Administration
- Creator:
- Khizer, Aliya Sultana
- Description:
- The United States is a country that is a melting pot of diversity. With so many cultures and ethnicities, the United States has created, reviewed, and implemented health care protocols and procedures to better accommodate the constant evolving demographic dynamics. South-Asians are the largest ethnic minority group in America consisting of people from Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka. The countries and their respective immigrant communities share common cultural, social and linguistic characteristics and values and thus are often clubbed together as one homogeneous region ( www.ameredia.com). Because of the constant evolving racial and ethnic demographics of the United states, health care services have had to become sensitive to conservative cultures such as the South-Asian culture in order to better serve the people of that culture. A literature review of the South-Asian culture, its cultural traits, taboos, and traditions along with a background on health care services for the South Asian Culture in America is provided. This information is provided in the hope that South-Asian American women and health care providers will learn to understand, embrace, and incorporate the fruits of both cultures while eliminating the differences that create barriers in health care services and choices by implementing a program that addresses these specific cultural needs.
- Resource Type:
- Masters Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- Bakersfield
- Department:
- Public Policy and Administration
- Creator:
- Fields, Breana Rachelle
- Description:
- The purpose of this study is to identify barriers to health care for individuals in same-sex relationships, draw public attention to the inequalities individuals in same-sex relationships face and offer recommendations to eliminate them. The study was non-experimental and used a qualitative approach through content analysis. Barriers to health care identified during the research process include access, marital status, influenced health endangering behaviors, discrimination, law, social barriers and social roles. Same-sex couple’s inability to marry is a factor involved in most of the barriers to health care. When individuals are not allowed to marry it limits a person’s ability to access a spouse’s employer provided health insurance plan. It may also drive individuals into practicing health endangering behaviors. Same-sex couples and individuals in the LGBT community are facing inequality and discrimination due to societal stigma and much more. Barriers to health care should not be another problem added to the issues this community already faces. After discovering the barriers to health care the researcher offered 4 recommendations to help solve the issues. The first recommendation is to create a policy legalizing marriage for same-sex couples. This will eliminate a barrier by allowing an individual to access their spouse's employer-provided health insurance. The second recommendation is for HRC and CHA to join forces. These are both very powerful organizations both having strong followings. If they join forces they can work together to develop a policy to cause a shift in hospital practices. This will help reduce the number of members of the LGBT community who are afraid of accessing medical services due to reasons related to medical staff and policies. The 3rd recommendation is to implement a zero-tolerance law. This will help eliminate social barriers and those related to discrimination. If people know they will be held responsible for discriminating they may be less likely to practice the behavior. The final recommendation is to adopt New Hampshire’s Marriage Policy. This will help eliminate barriers related to marital status.
- Resource Type:
- Masters Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- Bakersfield
- Department:
- Public Policy and Administration
- Creator:
- Bertagnole, Tracy
- Description:
- Mercy Hospitals of Bakersfield has a problem; long wait times for patients being transported within the hospital. There are many risks associated with intra-hospital transportation including physiologic changes, equipment changes and staffing changes. Long turn-around times can make this problem even worse. This may cause a life-threatening issue or negatively affect the patients’ perception of the hospital. To solve the problem it is proposed that Mercy utilize Transformational Care tools and principles, i.e. Lean. Using this suggestion, the researcher has identified many issues as to why Mercy Hospital’s intra-hospital transportation system has an average turn-around time of 33 minutes. They are; patient is eating or showering, transport waiting for nursing to finish tasks such as the handoff sheet, no nurse to help transport, nurse is busy with other patients, wrong equipment ordered and others. Through analysis it is recommended that Mercy implement a more streamlined process, in which specific guidelines are set in order to decrease turn-around times to the benchmark of 22 minutes. Some of these guidelines include; not requesting transport until patient is ready to be transported, transportation waiting for only five minutes for nursing, utilize the Plan Do Study Act (PDSA) model for sustainment and finally train all staff how to utilize the Transport Tracking system to keep track of all jobs placed in the queue which will help with accountability.
- Resource Type:
- Masters Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- Bakersfield
- Department:
- Public Policy and Administration
- Creator:
- Allman, Kathleen M
- Description:
- For the past four years, the State of California has been divided. The California Medical Board has maintained jurisdiction over physicians for decades. Since 2007, the role of the California Medical Board has expanded to oversee physician-owned ambulatory surgery centers as well. The California Department of Public Health regulates ambulatory surgery centers with no physician ownership. Thus, California has a split in the authority pertaining to the ambulatory surgery center industry. The California Department of Public Health will license facilities under its jurisdiction. No other facilities can become state-licensed. This is a disparity in the system. The California Medical Board, on the other hand, allows accreditation of physician-owned ambulatory surgery centers. The Medical Board authorizes four different agencies with as many sets of standards to credential the physician-owned facilities. This represents another contradiction in the California system. Finally, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services require certification of all ambulatory surgery centers that treat Medicare beneficiaries, with no distinction of ownership, representing yet another set of standards. Further complicating the situation, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services granted specific accreditation agencies the power to deem ambulatory surgery centers meet the federal regulations for treating Medicare recipients. All agencies and stakeholders have one goal, to protect the health and safety of individuals seeking treatment in ambulatory surgery centers. The need for simplification and conformity appears obvious, as the efficiencies would add much needed value and transparency to the complex and confusing healthcare system.
- Resource Type:
- Masters Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- Bakersfield
- Department:
- Public Policy and Administration
- Creator:
- Hackman, Diana D
- Description:
- Due to the link that has been established between obesity and processed and fast foods in America, recent research has emphasized examining the potential health benefits of providing nutrition information in fighting the nation‘s obesity epidemic. Nutrition label usage has been increasing due to the link between diet and health over the years; however, the rate of obesity has only increased since the passage of the Nutrition Labeling and Education Act (NLEA) of 1990. As a result, there has been increasing threats of legislation and regulation of both food labeling and food marketing practices in such a way that regulatory agencies have pointedly asked: how effective is nutrition labeling in reducing obesity in the US? In attempting to answer this question, the paper focuses on nutrition labeling and its connection to obesity. This policy analysis is designed to provide the reader with an inside look on nutrition labeling policy‘s effect on obesity. It investigates the relationship between nutrition labeling and the rising obesity rates in the US and explores a plethora of practical considerations that must be addressed before labeling policies are implemented. The findings of this study can provide useful information to policy makers and nutrition labeling regulatory agencies on improving nutrition labeling system in the US. Ultimately, this policy analysis finding has the power to call the Nation‘s attention to how pervasive the problem is and how many people are struggling with the labeling system. The project is divided into four chapters as follows: The first chapter discusses the purpose and significant of the study. Here, background of the problem is discussed, the statement of the problem is stated, methods and procedure are stated, and the importance of the study is defined. Chapter two gives an overview of the problem. This chapter determines the relationship between nutrition labeling and obesity based on previous research. The federal nutrition labeling bill is analyzed. The importance of the bill is highlighted and previous research on nutrition labeling is analyzed which delves into more detail about the nutrition labeling policies. In the last section of this chapter, the potential solutions are briefly discussed. In the third chapter, policy alternatives are analyzed. This chapter explores alternatives policies and solutions to deal with the nutrition labeling, discuss comparison to future consequences, and spillovers and externalities. The end of this chapter explore constrains and political feasibility of the current nutrition labeling policies. The fourth and final chapter of this paper examines the alternatives and provides recommendations. The recommendations are: [1] to provide real serving size of food to make it easier for consumers to understand nutrition information; [2] to improve the ingredient list so that consumers will know exactly what they are getting; [3] for FDA to require labels for unpackaged foods; [4] to get rid of the qualified health claims and replace it with a ―traffic light‖ system; and [5] to specified instead of generalized nutrition information. The findings and conclusions presented in this report were, of course, determined independently. The fact is the current nutrition labeling system is not perfect; therefore, there is still a lot that need to be done when it comes to nutrition labeling in America.
- Resource Type:
- Masters Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- Bakersfield
- Department:
- Public Policy and Administration
- Creator:
- Suatengco, Teodoro (Ted) E.
- Description:
- (United States Department of Homeland Security, 2010) estimated in the country, the continuation of illegal immigration despite legislative, administrative, and enforcement initiatives over the last two decades represents a clear failure of national sovereignty and the economic security objectives of U.S. immigration policy (Haines and Rosenblum, 1999). Though there are many issues associated with illegal immigration in the U.S., the purpose of this thesis is to evaluate the effects of the Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) of 1986 and determine what changes must be made in order to formulate a policy option using an “IRCA-like” model in addressing the current illegal alien population in the country. Under IRCA, legalization, employer sanctions, and enforcement at the U.S.-Mexico border were the key tenets. IRCA is perceived as a failure because there are more illegal aliens today compared to when IRCA was passed in 1986. The cause of this failure is simply the lack of commitment and enforcement of the provisions of IRCA by the federal government. Chapter 3 of this thesis clearly shows where and how the failures occurred. More importantly, identifying and learning from the mistakes of IRCA is paramount to developing the next immigration reform bill so that the same mistakes are not repeated and to meeting the original objectives of IRCA when it was initially passed in 1986. The majority of immigrants to the U.S. are lawful citizens who have contributed to, as well as benefited from the country. But there are those who are illegally in the U.S. with no regard for the law and strong desire to take advantage of benefits at whatever cost. Thus, a nation that does not or cannot control its borders will find itself prey to aliens willing to defraud the system for jobs, welfare, free schools and health care. Using the same key tenets of IRCA, the U.S. must first secure the U.S.-Mexico border by building a fence along the entire U.S.-Mexico border. Second, it must implement improvements on the current H2 visa program by improving “approval” turnaround for “working visa” applicants and monitoring non-immigrant visas (student visa and tourist visa) more frequently. Third, it must implement a one-time “2-year Employer Sanction -Legalization Plan” to “push” those who are currently violating the law and grant amnesty to “pull” those illegal aliens eligible for targeted amnesty. After a 2-year application period, the U.S. government must increase penalties on employer sanction violations and visa overstayer violations as a major deterrence to stemming the tide of illegal migration to the U.S.
- Resource Type:
- Masters Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- Bakersfield
- Department:
- Public Policy and Administration