Healthcare professionals play a significant role in improving patient and community health and well-being. However, healthcare professionals face multiple challenges, including increased demands for quality care, nursing staff shortages, a high prevalence of chronic conditions, and the need to integrate technology into clinical practice. These issues can affect care providers’ performance, prompting the need to measure nurse practitioners’ performance consistently. According to Kahya & Oral (2018), assessing the performance of healthcare professionals is a profound strategy for guaranteeing high-quality care and achieving the desired medical outcomes. The National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) provides a set of standards for improving care quality and measuring patient outcomes consistent with nursing interventions. Consequently, this paper discusses BMI (Body Mass Index) assessment as a performance measure and identifies strategies for improving patient outcomes, cost saving, and enhancing patient ratings.
Adult body mass index (BMI) assessment is a profound approach for enabling people to maintain healthy body weights and preventing multiple overweight-associated conditions. According to the National Committee for Quality Assurance [NCQA) (n.d), BMI remains the most useful population-level measure of obesity and overweight. When justifying the rationale for frequent adult BMI assessment, it is vital to consider obesity as a significant population health problem that results in detrimental consequences, including a high prevalence of chronic conditions like diabetes, cardiovascular diseases (CVDs), and premature deaths. The National Committee for Quality Assurance (n.d) contends that obesity contributes to approximately one in five deaths in the United States. Other consequences associated with obesity and overweight include social stigma, psychological stress, compromised quality of life, and increased care costs (Gutin, 2017). As a result, weight-for-height screening (BMI assessment) enables healthcare professionals to estimate and identify the amount of body fat.
Equally, careful BMI monitoring helps healthcare professionals to identify at-risk populations and develop individualized interventions for preventing and treating obesity, including involving adults in regulated physical exercises, practicing diet control mechanisms, and educating them on self-care interventions. Arguably, it is possible to ensure appropriate BMI assessment and improvement of patient outcomes by obtaining, documenting, and frequently updating records regarding weight, height, and BMI for all outpatient adults, educating at-risk populations on interventions for managing healthy body weights, and developing follow-up plans to ensure long-term effects of the enacted strategies for preventing obesity and overweight.
Healthcare professionals can adopt various ways of assessing adults’ BMIs and identifying at-risk individuals. According to Khanna et al. (2022), strategies for measuring and evaluating the body mass index include establishing the percentage of the body or visceral fat, measuring the waist circumference, and computing the waist-to-hip ratio. These criteria are fundamental in defining obesity and overweight. The World Health Organization [WHO] (2021) defines obesity as a body mass index (BMI) greater or equal to 30kg/m², while overweight represents a BMI greater or equal to 25kg/m². Based on the World Health Organization’s definitions of obesity and overweight, it is possible to detect the levels of risk and proximity to the risk factors for obesity and overweight.
After assessing adult BMI based on waist-to-hip ratios, waist circumference and computing the percentage of the body or visceral fat, healthcare professionals are responsible for keeping accurate documentation and frequently updating records to establish the effectiveness of interventions in preventing and treating overweight and obesity. Healthcare professionals should ensure accurate documentation of BMI by using electronic medical record systems (EMRS). Verberne et al. (2018) contend that electronic health records (EHRs) contain complete and structured patient health status information documentation. Also, these technology-mediated modalities allow clinicians to accurately compute adult BMI by automating the process and leveraging data regarding patients’ heights and weights. Therefore, they enhance procedure accuracy and convenience. After applying these strategies to compute and assess adult BMI, it is possible to track and measure patient outcomes by creating spreadsheets and updating the team consistent with re
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