2. Assess Your Current Prevention Practice

Select Figure 2.1 for steps you can take (14 KB).

When staff have agreed on the need for change, the next step is to assess your current system for delivering preventive services. During this process, you can examine whether the Put Prevention Into Practice (PPIP) system and tools will fit your setting's needs. Although you may decide to make some changes in your current system, you may not need to change everything.

A number of tools are presented in this chapter to help you assess your current practice, including:

• A worksheet that will provide an overview of the preventive services you currently deliver.
• A worksheet to assess current individual and group systems.
• Guidelines and forms for assessing current clinical flow.

A review of the current system can provide you with a basis for comparison when you evaluate your system in the future. Conducting future evaluations will allow you to determine whether the new system is effective for your clinical setting.

Assess Current Preventive Services

Analyze how and to what extent preventive services are delivered in your clinical setting before going off in new directions or modifying existing systems. Use the Worksheet for Assessing Current Preventive Services (PDF File, 12 KB; PDF Help), to help determine your setting's current level of delivering preventive care.

Assess Current Individual and Group Systems

Use this worksheet (PDF File, 9 KB; PDF Help) (also in Appendix B) to help you further evaluate the interpersonal relationships in your setting, the perceptions of your patients, and the need for change.

Assess Current Clinical Flow

When analyzing clinical flow, consider whom the patient encounters during an office visit and what is done at each step of the visit. Such an analysis can provide a foundation for improving clinical efficiency. Effective organization of clinical systems and patient flow, and productive use of staff members' skills, can improve the delivery of preventive services.

Use the following exercise to review your current clinical flow, to note which staff members perform which functions, and to note when each service is documented. Compare staff perceptions of current clinical flow by having them first complete the Current Clinical Flow (PDF File, 15 KB; PDF Help) and then discuss them as a group. Use the following Sample Current Clinical Flow as a guide.

Sample Current Clinical Flow

Patient Enters the Clinic for an Appointment

• New patients complete the personal information and medical history/insurance forms provided by the receptionist.
• The patient is asked to wait in the waiting room. Educational materials are available for the patient to review.
• The nurse/medical assistant/nurse assistant calls the patient from the waiting area and takes the patient's height, weight, blood pressure, and a brief history of the presenting problem.
• Information is documented on a progress note, and the patient is brought into the exam room.
• The patient waits for the clinician in the exam room.

Patient Sees the Clinician

• The clinician documents assessment, diagnosis, and services delivered in the progress notes.
• Flow sheets are used to track medications, weight, and vital signs.

Patient Exits the Clinic

• Followup information is documented on the bill.
• Educational materials are available for the patient to take home.
• The receptionist makes an appointment for the patient's next visit.

Chapter 3 explains how to use the valuable information you just gathered to design and implement a system for delivering preventive services that fits your needs.

Return to Contents
Proceed to Next Section