Preventive and Diagnostic Tests Paper
Potential Differences between Preventive and Diagnostic Tests
Preventative tests are easily acceptable and simple to both staff and patients. In comparison, diagnostic tests are not only expensive but also invasive and remain justifiable as essential in establishing a diagnosis. It is also worth knowing that, preventive tests are commonly selected for high sensitivity so that, the potential of the occurrence of a disease isn’t missed (Janes & Magaret, 2016). However, diagnostic tests are often preferred for high specificity such that, a lot of accuracy and precision rather than acceptability is considered by a patient. In preventive tests, positive results are indicators for disease suspicion which warrant confirmation nut in diagnostic tests; positive results are a provision for a definitive diagnosis (Janes & Magaret, 2016). Preventive and Diagnostic Tests Paper
Why This Distinction is Important In the Primary Care Site.
It is important to distinguish between preventive and diagnostic tests to improve healthcare provider’s knowledge on the tests to specifically use when providing care to patients in clinical settings (Sharfstein, 2015). With this knowledge it will be easier to know when to detect potential disease indicators or identify the presence or absence of disease in an individual. Preventive and Diagnostic Tests Paper
The Ten Most Commonly Ordered Laboratory Diagnostic tests Ordered in the Practicum Site and the Criteria for Ordering
In my practicum site, the laboratory tests which are commonly ordered include:
Complete Blood Count
Urinalysis
Hemoglobin A1C
Fasting blood glucose
Random Blood glucose
Thyroid function test
Liver Function test
Cultures
Erythrocyte Sedimentation Rate
Basic Metabolic panel
HCG pregnancy test
Laboratory tests can be ordered by practitioners and physicians to either impatient or outpatient patients. The order should have a clear intent with the patient’s name, gender, age and contact details accurately and clearly documented (Yang, Orellana-Barrios & Nugent, 2018). It should also include the specific tests to be done which will guide the specimen to be used. No short forms or abbreviations should be used.Preventive and Diagnostic Tests Paper
Reference
Janes, H., & Magaret, A. (2016). Statistical evaluation of diagnostic tests. Laboratory Diagnosis of Viral Infections,, 9-18.
Sharfstein, J. (2015). FDA regulation of laboratory-developed diagnostic tests: protect the public, advance the science. Jama, 313(7), 667-668.
Yang, S., Orellana-Barrios, M., & Nugent, K. (2018). Research methods: Clinical studies based on routine laboratory tests. The Southwest Respiratory and Critical Care Chronicles, 6(23), 33-39.
When you go to the doctor, there can be a lot of jargon that, as a patient, can be confusing. We want to educate our community on terminology that can save you thousands of dollars in medical bills. This article is going to describe the difference between preventive vs. diagnostic that will, it is hoped, save you money at your next doctor visit.
Preventive care
The Affordable Care Act introduced the policy that all health plans offer preventive care without any co-payments or deductibles unless you are out of network or have a grandfathered plan. The idea was to diagnose symptoms early on and, by offering these free, it would remove the financial barrier. Preventive and Diagnostic Tests Paper
What does preventive care actually mean? The key word that defines preventive care is prevent. Preventive health care consists of measures taken for disease prevention, as opposed to disease treatment.
For adults, this may include such things as high blood pressure, immunizations, high cholesterol, Type 2 diabetes, colorectal cancer and mammograms (in some cases). For children, it is vaccinations, well baby, well child, and other preventive care.
You can find the full list of preventive care items at https://www.healthcare.gov/coverage/preventive-care-benefits/.
Preventive care is given to the patient is when the patient is symptom-free and the doctor has no reason to believe the patient might be unhealthy. The doctor may suggest testing or screenings on a regular basis depending on the nature of the testing or screening and your family history. Many times, preventive care is scheduled in advance, and usually the patient is asked set them up before they leave their previous appointment.
To put this into perspective for you, think about a yearly flu shot. The doctor may suggest you get this vaccination every year. They offer flu shots free at many locations, and usually at the doctor’s office. The purpose of the flu shot is to prevent the flu that is going around for the current year, or future strands of the flu that may be going around. The flu, at times, can be very harmful, so the vaccination is to help your body become immune. This is preventive, since the patient would not already have the flu when they receive the shot.Preventive and Diagnostic Tests Paper
Diagnostic care
Diagnostic care is a little bit different. This can be more of an “out-of-the-ordinary” type visit, or it can be a scheduled visit with your primary care physician. This type of care is what a patient will receive after they have symptoms or risk factors and the doctor wants to diagnose a possible health risk. The diagnostic portion of the visit will include tools such as radiology, ultrasounds, laboratory work and other necessary testing not needed in a routine visit.
Diagnostic care can continue for as much time as needed if the conditions worsen, or if it is a more serious, prolonged health issue. Most of the time, urgent care and emergency room visits will be diagnostic. From emergency room visits and urgent care visits, you can receive a quick diagnosis and then the patient can quickly be on their way. Otherwise, the patient may receive a series of different types of tests to diagnose the symptoms present.
When you are receiving diagnostic treatment and it includes services like radiology or pathology, there will be a bit of “behind-the-scenes-work,” which may result in more bills, or bills from different providers as well. Knowing this information and how it directly affects your billing will help you when you are gathering all of the information from a doctor’s visit. It will also help when requesting additional information for a specific date of service.
Save thousands on medical bills
So, how can you save thousands of dollars on medical bills? Preventive care and diagnostic care can happen in the same visit. Yes, that is right! Imagine a time when you went to the doctor for a routine yearly physical. Prior to this physical, your neck started to hurt. Since you are going to the doctor, you will just ask about your sore neck. After all, why would you make two separate appointments and possibly have to adjust your work schedule when it makes sense to knock out two birds with one stone?Preventive and Diagnostic Tests Paper
You go to your visit and, after your physical is over, you tell your doctor about the pain you have been feeling in your neck. Your doctor documents that he/she looked to diagnose your sore neck and, with that simple statement that “my neck is sore,” you created a diagnostic visit. The billers and coders at the facility send off the bill to the insurance company. The insurance company pays for the preventive portion, but submits back to the doctor that they need to bill you for “my neck is sore.” A bill is mailed to your house, and you pay it without even thinking.
So, the next time you visit your doctor’s office for your annual visit, consider if the questions you want to ask are worth the diagnostic cost!
Opting for preventive health check-ups seems to have become a growing trend among a large section of the middle and elite classes. Many corporate hospitals & corporate laboratory chains across India routinely offer such packages. They often include an array of limited biochemical tests, cardiovascular function tests e.g stress test; imaging studies such as X-ray, ultrasound and sometimes more advanced scans and specific investigations such as mammography, pap smear, and bone density testing.
Preventive Healthcare India
The description of these packages is akin to that of credit cards or frequent flyer programs in airlines—basic, silver, titanium, gold, platinum and sometimes health card membership, corporate health program, soon. The idea is to promote the notion that they are tailored to the needs of a particular age, sex and patient groups.
Such check-ups are periodic and many employers offer these packages as job perks. There is a firm belief that preventive checks are necessary and contribute to good health. Of course, there is the issue of costs. But then, it is those who can afford private healthcare that are prime targets of these packages. They assume an expenditure in the range of Rs.5,000 to Rs.15,000 is money well-spent and guarantees better health.Preventive and Diagnostic Tests Paper
Preventive Healthcare Services
Unfortunately, many assumptions on which preventive health check-ups are based are fallacious. The analogy of a car that needs regular servicing is often used to justify these procedures, a particularly tempting comparison for a class familiar with the need to put their personal vehicles through preventive maintenance every few months. The human body, however, is very different from a car or any other machine and has self-healing powers. Unlike a machine, a periodic abnormality in the body’s functioning is the norm and, in an overwhelming majority of malfunctions, the body uses its healing powers to take care of the problem.
Periodic health checks provide a snapshot of the body’s condition at a point of time and tell us little about how the body is actually coping with an abnormality.
An even more problematic aspect of putting a person through a battery of tests is the concept of what is a normal reading of a test for a particular individual. Normal values for the population are determined based on a large number of individual values and are always represented as a range and not a fixed number. If plotted on a graph, normal values take the form of a bell curve, with most people clustered in the middle and a few who lie on either end. This also means there will be people who fall outside the normal range for a particular test but that value is normal for them.
Evidence from meta-analysis done in diverse settings shows that, on average, there is a one-in-20 chance that an abnormal result is not really so. An absolutely normal person, who is put through a battery of 20 tests, has an even chance that at least one test result will be abnormal. This is when an Rs.15,000-package turns into a much more expensive enterprise, as doctors embark on a wild-goose chase to nail the elusive abnormality. In addition to costs, the patient is put through a range of more invasive and advanced tests that pose a risk to an otherwise healthy body. It also puts a patient through unnecessary anxiety that might adversely affect a person’s life.Preventive and Diagnostic Tests Paper
The limitations of preventive health check-ups are not merely theoretical. There is a range of evidence that routine health check-ups, unless backed up by sound evidence, just do not help and can actually harm. For example, there are some periodic routine check-ups that are evidence-based such as a pap smear to detect early signs of cervical cancer in women after a certain age but no mean to put through pap smear test for someone with a thyroid disorder.
Nothing, however, justifies putting a person without symptoms through a battery of random tests. The blood test is the 1st process in diagnosis or doctor’s evaluation. It’s understandable to have a thyroid test along with your liver or kidney function checked.
Importance of Preventive Health Care
Diagnostics of all kinds are powerful tools when used in conjunction with clinical assessment, family medical history and when a person exhibits symptoms. However, If a doctor finds on physical examination and from the patient’s history that a patient has a lump in the abdomen or has periodic episodes of central chest pain, it is entirely justified to prescribe tests specifically designed to ascertain the cause. But a shotgun approach to diagnostics is cowboy medicine, not a part of rational healthcare. Corporate hospitals, corporate laboratory chains, and health card issuers are the principal and usually the only beneficiaries of the growing practice of these preventive health check-ups.Preventive and Diagnostic Tests Paper