Disease Screenings

A 65-year-old female patient is seen your office for an annual physical examination. The patient states that she has not seen a healthcare provider for the past 10 years because she has been feeling well. She has no past medical or surgical history. She reports no complaints. The patient is new to your practice. You completed a comprehensive history and physical examination on the patient. The patient states that she does not know her family history because she was adopted and never had a chance to meet or speak to her biological families. The history and physical exam are unremarkable.
Discuss the following:
1. Considering the patient age and gender, what preventive health and screenings would you consider for this patient based on the current guidelines?
Submission Instructions:
• Your initial post should be at least 500 words, formatted and cited in current APA style with support from at least at least 3 academic sources no older than 5 years (2017-2022).
Grading Rubric
________________________________________
Your assignment will be graded according to the grading rubric.
Discussion Rubric
Criteria Ratings Points
Identification of Main Issues, Problems, and Concepts Distinguished – 5 points
Identify and demonstrate a sophisticated understanding of the issues, problems, and concepts. Excellent – 4 points
Identifies and demonstrate an accomplished understanding of most of issues, problems, and concepts. Fair – 2 points
Identifies and demonstrate an acceptable understanding of most of issues, problems, and concepts. Poor – 1 point
Identifies and demonstrate an unacceptable understanding of most of issues, problems, and concepts. 5 points
Use of Citations, Writing Mechanics and APA Formatting Guidelines Distinguished – 3 points
Effectively uses the literature and other resources to inform their work. Exceptional use of citations and extended referencing. High level of APA precision and free of grammar and spelling errors. Excellent – 2 points
Effectively uses the literature and other resources to inform their work. Moderate use of citations and extended referencing. Moderate level of APA precision and free of grammar and spelling errors. Fair – 1 point
Ineffectively uses the literature and other resources to inform their work. Moderate use of citations and extended referencing. APA style and writing mechanics need more precision and attention to detail. Poor – 0 points
Ineffectively uses the literature and other resources to inform their work. An unacceptable use of citations and extended referencing. APA style and writing mechanics need serious attention. 3 points

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Discussion Post

Preventative and screening services are vital, particularly for older adults because health risks increase with age. Therefore, it is important for older adults to screen for health problems, assess the risk for future health problems, adopt a healthy lifestyle and ensure the vaccinations are up-to-date (Seematter-Bagnoud & Büla, 2018). This discussion will discuss the appropriate preventative health and screening for a 65-year-old female patient whose health history and physical exam findings are remarkable.

The preventative health services for this patient include an annual wellness exam to examine the patient’s overall health every year. Additionally, the patient should be advised to always get an annual influenza vaccine and update pneumococcal vaccines to prevent the risk of influenza and pneumonia and the associated complications (Seematter-Bagnoud & Büla, 2018). Moreover, the patient requires depression screening to identify any symptoms of depression. The patient also needs nutritional and exercise counseling to ensure she adopts a healthy diet and she is physically active.

For the screening services, the patient needs breast cancer screening where a mammogram should be done every one to two years. Colorectal cancer screening is also recommended for this patient through annual immunohistochemical stool (iFOB) testing or colonoscopy (Schoenborn et al., 2019). Lung cancer screening is also recommended, especially if the patient is a smoker or has a history of smoking within the last 15 years. High levels of cholesterol are risk factors for stroke and heart disease. Therefore, regular cholesterol screening is also recommended for this patient. Women aged 65 years and above should undergo osteoporosis screening because the risk of osteoporosis increases with age. Osteoporosis screening is necessary to establish the necessity for Bone Mineral Density (BMD) testing. Fall patient education and screening for falls are beneficial for this patient and also vitamin D supplements and physical therapy are recommended interventions for older adults, especially if they are at an increased risk for falls (Lionis & Midlöv, 2017). Diabetes is a common condition among older adults and therefore this patient needs to undergo diabetes screening. Similarly, the risk for developing hypertension increases with age and thus the patient will be advised to always undergo high blood screening every time she seeks healthcare services, or at least once per year (Krist et al., 2021). according to the NCQA 2010 HEDIS Technical Specifications, people aged 65 years and above without a former diagnosis of glaucoma need to undergo glaucoma eye examination a minimum of once time every two years (Fox, Kim & Weiskopf, 2019). The examination needs to be performed by an eye care professional to ensure prompt detection of glaucomatous conditions. Additionally, it is also important to advise the patient to undergo a dental, hearing, and vision screening. Since the patient has not had prior adequate cervical pap smear screening, a cervical pap smear is recommended (Roy et al., 2020). The patient will also be informed to be attending annual gynecologic examination after every two years. Finally, an HIV/STI screening should be recommended for the patient if it is determined that she is at an increased risk of getting HIV or STI depending on the risk factors.

References

Fox C, Kim K & Weiskopf E. (2019). Using Telemedicine to Increase Eye Care Screening & Referral for People with Diabetes. Journal of Public Health Issues and Practices, 3(137), 1-5.

Lionis, C., & Midlöv, P. (2017). Prevention in the elderly: a necessary priority for general practitioners. European Journal of General Practice, 23(1), 203-208.

Krist, A. H., Davidson, K. W., Mangione, C. M., Cabana, M., Caughey, A. B., Davis, E. M., … & US Preventive Services Task Force. (2021). Screening for hypertension in adults: US Preventive Services Task Force reaffirmation recommendation statement. Jama, 325(16), 1650-1656.

Roy, S., Moss, J. L., Rodriguez-Colon, S. M., Shen, C., Cooper, J. D., Lennon, R. P., Lengerich, E. J., Adelman, A., Curry, W., & Ruffin, M. T., 4th (2020). Examining Older Adults’ Attitudes and Perceptions of Cancer Screening and Overscreening: A Qualitative Study. Journal of primary care & community health, 11, 2150132720959234. https://doi.org/10.1177/2150132720959234

Schoenborn, N. L., Huang, J., Sheehan, O. C., Wolff, J. L., Roth, D. L., & Boyd, C. M. (2019). Influence of age, health, and function on cancer screening in older adults with limited life expectancy. Journal of general internal medicine, 34(1), 110-117.

Seematter-Bagnoud, L., & Büla, C. (2018). Brief assessments and screening for geriatric conditions in older primary care patients: a pragmatic approach. Public health reviews, 39(1), 1-13.