Introduction
Health care delivery is a critical responsibility that governments and healthcare bodies consider seriously because of the benefits associated with effective healthcare. To ensure that healthcare is delivered accordingly, relevant bodies formulate healthcare policy to guide various activities associated with care delivery. Health care policy is defined as the myriad of rules, regulations, and guidelines that govern healthcare professionals’ operations, healthcare finances, and the quality-of-care services healthcare providers offer (Mason, Leavitt, & Chaffee, 2012).
Therefore, healthcare regulations exist to operate, finance, and guide healthcare delivery throughout. The policy covers several healthcare issues ranging from healthcare financing, emergency care, chronic illness and disability, public health, preventive care, and care of terminal illness (Milstead, 2013).
This paper identifies and critically evaluates current health care policy issue that is addressed by the proposed legislation in the 2013 Georgia General Assembly. The health care policy addressed includes political aspects of the legislation. Therefore, the policy affects a wide scale of people within the state of Georgia. In Georgia, APRNs are not allowed to order radiographic imaging except in life-threatening situations only (Georgia General Assembly, 2013).
This has made Georgia the only state where healthcare delivery is characterized by a delay in diagnosis and care resulting in patient complications. Allowing advanced practice registered nurses (APRNs) to order radiographic imaging tests is identified as the current healthcare policy issue in Georgia. It is believed that passing into law senate bill 94 that requires APRNs to order radiographic imaging tests would be beneficial to the Georgia healthcare industry.
Presentation of Health-Related Bill
In 2012, Senator Johnny Grant introduced the APRNs order radiographic imaging (SB 386) bill in the senate. Through this bill, advanced practice registered nurses could order radiographic imaging tests instead of relying on orders from the physician. It was intended to remove the barrier provided in the Georgia statutes that restricts APRNs to order radiographic imaging tests. Removal of the barrier could allow APRNs to order the tests at all instances regardless of the situation, whether life-threatening or not. However, the bill could not be passed because the majority of the house members argued that it would raise medical costs. Moreover, Sharon Cooper’s refusal to give it a hearing contributed to its failure to pass into law in 2012.
However, in 2013, Millar Fran 40th, Unterman Renee 45th, Hustler Chuck 52nd, and Albers John 56th introduced, the senate bill 94, into the senate requiring the amendments of code sections 43-34-25 of the official code of Georgia annotated. This bill relates to the delegation of certain medical acts to APRNs. It primarily seeks revision of the provisions on delegation of authority to order radiographic imaging tests and related matters and to repeal conflicting laws (Georgia General Assembly, 2013).
Passing this bill into law would be crucial for Georgia State because Georgian APRNs would have a chance to order CT and MRI instead of waiting for authorization from the physician. Implementation of this policy is likely to succeed because APRNs have substantial experience and they know which patients need radiographic tests, but they are denied the right to perform the duty because of outdated statutes.
Identification of Health care Policy Issue
The health care policy issue identified includes allowing Advanced Practice Registered Nurses (APRNs) to order radiographic imaging tests. In Georgia State, physicians are the only authorized professionals to order radiographic imaging tests in the hospitals. This leads to delays in healthcare delivery because nurse practitioners must wait until the physician gives an order to carry out a radiographic imaging test even though the nurse practitioners know which patients need the test.
The restrictions undermine the APRNs’ professional capabilities limiting their practice contrary to their licensure. Instead, restrictions elevate the physician’s position even when the advanced practice registered nurses can order radiographic imaging tests. Nursing regulations hold that for one to be licensed as an advanced practice registered nurse, he/she must attain a master in nursing (MSN) or doctorate in nursing practice (DNP). This implies that APRNs professionals have rich experience in patient care and their roles can be extended to that of physicians without compromising healthcare delivery or putting the lives of patients in danger (Rosenbaum, 2011).
In 2010, AARP, a body that deals with the welfare of nurse practitioners, addressed the advanced practice registered nurses’ concerns regarding statutory and regulatory barriers at the federal and state level. The statutes and regulations prevented them from discharging their duties and practicing maximally according to their licensure. For example, in Georgia state, one such concern was the need to be allowed to order radiographic imaging tests. If Senate bill 94 passes into law, APRNs will have an opportunity to order radiographic imaging tests in life-threatening situations, order drugs, order medical devices, order medical treatments, and provide diagnostic studies (Georgia General Assembly, 2013).
Allowing nurse practitioners to perform the above-listed duties would promote healthcare delivery, decrease hospital delays so that patients receive timely diagnosis, and allow the APRNs to practice to their full capacity. Amending the statutes that limit nurse practitioners from ordering radiographic imaging tests will not multiply the number of tests that are ordered, but rather would improve care delivery because the nurse practitioners already know which patients need these tests.
Analysis of the Issue
Allowing Advanced Practice Registered Nurses (APRNs) to order radiographic imaging test is a critical health care issue. It includes political, economic, ethical, social, and legal factors. This is the reason why Senate bill 94 was tabled in the house for passing to request for the removal of the barriers that restrict APRNs from ordering radiographic imaging tests. According to Leavitt (2009), a public policy such as healthcare policy is a sensitive issue that attracts many stakeholders to ensure that regulations established are beneficial to each citizen regardless of the status. Sometimes qualifications of APRNs can raise serious politics within healthcare facilities regarding their roles and those of the physicians.
It may seem that APRNs are taking the roles of physicians, but legislations help specify the scope of each profession to avoid conflicts among the professionals. In fact, advanced practice registered nurses have the necessary training to enable them to carry out some of the physicians’ roles. However, they are limited by certain statutes that require a physician to issue orders to them before they can carry out those roles.
It seems unethical not to allow APRNs to practice to their full potential. This is the reason public policy formulation incorporates many stakeholders to ensure the interests of all the involved parties are addressed accordingly. The legal factors surrounding the issue include discharge of the duties only upon delegation or authorization by the physician. This will ensure compliance as well as check the health care service delivery (Rosenbaum, 2011).
Stakeholders Involved in Health Care Policy Formulation
The formulation of healthcare policy attracts many stakeholders. Looking at the issues of stakeholders from a broad perspective provides that every person can be a stakeholder in healthcare policy formulation. However, considering the issue from a narrow view reveals that several stakeholders exist who play important, but different roles in health care policymaking. To begin with, patients form part of the healthcare policymaking stakeholders.
As a result, every healthcare policy formulated must ensure that patients get access to affordable and quality healthcare. The policy issue of allowing APRNs to order radiographic imaging tests is good news to patients and they would welcome its passing warmly because of the benefits it would bring. With the policy, accessibility, affordability, and quality of care are likely to improve (Leavitt, 2009).
Patients believe that allowing APRNs to order radiographic imaging test would improve access to health care services and the quality of care because the policy streamline health care delivery and it eliminates delays. Another category of healthcare policy stakeholders includes Healthcare providers. Healthcare providers may include physicians, advanced practice registered nurses (APRNs), and other nurse practitioners (Mason, Leavitt, & Chaffee, 2012). They are vital stakeholders because they are directly involved in facilitating radiographic imaging tests for patients. Therefore, they provide relevant information regarding how the policy could be implemented without causing controversies among healthcare professionals. Both physicians and advanced practice registered nurses support the passing of Senate Bill 94 into law.
In addition, the government and insurance providers form another category of stakeholders in healthcare policymaking. The government ensures that appropriate federal and state laws governing healthcare practice are adhered to. Being the major player, the government enacts and amends laws to facilitate improved healthcare delivery. Moreover, the government supports improved healthcare delivery. Thus, it supports the bill because it is one way of improving the efficiency of healthcare delivery (Leavitt, 2009).
Health Impacts of Passing the Senate Bill 94 into Law
Passing the proposed legislation into law will bring significant changes in the Georgian healthcare industry. The health care policy streamlines healthcare delivery by reducing delays caused by waiting for the physician to permit before a patient could undergo a radiographic imaging test. This would improve healthcare delivery tremendously. Moreover, the health care policy would create an equitable distribution of duties and responsibilities among healthcare professionals (Proche, 2012).
Furthermore, advanced practice registered nurses will have an opportunity to practice to their full extent, hence improving their job satisfaction. For instance, the APRNs will provide emergency radiographic imaging tests instead of waiting for the physician to give an order for the test, and yet they already know the patients who need the test. This could help during an emergency such as an accident or any life-threatening situation where many casualties need radiographic imaging tests.
Recommendations
From the analysis above, it can be recommended that the healthcare policy allowing Advanced Practice Registered Nurses (APRNs) to order radiographic imaging tests should be voted into law. This would allow healthcare practitioners to improve healthcare delivery.
Conclusion
The healthcare policy issue discussed above is very crucial in Georgia State. Georgia is the only US state with outdated laws that restrict advanced nurse practitioners from ordering medication and prescription, ordering radiographic imaging tests, and diagnosing. It is believed that the policy will improve healthcare delivery and bring important healthcare reforms to the state. Ideally, allowing nursing practitioners to practice to their full capacity is the target of many healthcare facilities. Therefore, allowing them to perform extra duties provided in the Senate bill 94 that is yet to be passed into law is an important way of providing them with a full mandate to practice effectively (Proche, 2012).
References
Georgia General Assembly. (2013). 2013-2014 Regular Session – SB 94 Advanced Practice Registered Nurses; delegation of authority to order radiographic imaging tests; revise prov. Web.
Leavitt, J.K. (2009). Leaders in health policy: A critical role for nursing. Nurse Outlook, 57, 73-77. Web.
Mason, D. J., Leavitt, J. K., & Chaffee, M. (2012). Policy and politics in nursing and health care (6th ed.). St. Louis, MO: Saunders.
Milstead, J. A. (2013). Health policy and politics: A nurse’s guide (4th ed.). Burlington: A: Jones & Bartlett.
Proche, D. (2012). Health policy: Application for nurses and other health care professionals. Sudbury, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning, LLC.
Rosenbaum, S. (2011). Law and the Public’s Health: The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act: Implications for public health policy and practice. Public Health Reports, 126 (1), 130-135.