Comprehensive need assessment is essential to help healthcare professionals in using different resources that will help them to enhance patient care. This assessment is designed to get knowledge about the gaps that can come up in patient care and how to overcome those gaps through care coordination. This assessment also helps to identify patients ‘needs and the method to assess patients’ needs. Moreover, care coordination is essential for patient care, and here we will discuss different strategies that will enhance patient care. Also, this assessment is designed to discuss interdisciplinary team collaboration toward care coordination. 

Current Gaps in the Patient’s Care

79 years old diabetic patient named Mr. Decker comes up in the hospital with the issue of an infected toe, but his failure to follow post-discharge guidelines has led to his readmission with a serious infection. Various factors or gaps come up in patient care that patient Mr. Decker belongs to a low-income family, so he cannot afford costly treatment, but the healthcare provider did not notice this element. Secondly, the healthcare provider did not give complete knowledge regarding the post-discharge healthcare routine, and due to this, the patient’s health condition became critical. Gaps also come up because healthcare providers do not evaluate patient conditions after discharge. 

NURS FPX 6610 Assessment 1 Comprehensive Needs Assessment

The Patient-Centered Assessment Method was used as the needs evaluation tool to ensure Mr. Decker’s physiological, social, religious, and psychological requirements were fulfilled (Perazzo et al., 2020). The tool was chosen because it emphasizes an effort-based approach. This approach will help healthcare professionals to provide patients with extensive care by paying attention to their emotional needs. 

Informational Needs for Patient’s Optimal Care

The information about the patient that is needed to access the current level of care is 

• Patient (Mr. Decker) medical records like age, weight, and patient allergic condition are needed. 
• Patient’s emotional behavior, desire, medical schedule, and religious beliefs will help to evaluate whether the patient’s needs are fulfilled.  

Strategy for Gathering Additional Necessary Data

The preliminary discussion will help to understand Mr. Decker’s condition; thus, healthcare professionals must focus on obtaining additional information from the patient’s family (Mertens et al., 2020). It is essential to interview those familiar with him to get extra details about his behavior, interests, diet, and other factors important for optimal care. Interviewing his spouse and kids, who are the ones who know him well, is therefore advised. Furthermore, because he belongs to an older age group, it is unclear that he uses social media, but it is still advisable to examine it. Interviewing his friends will also help the healthcare staff better understand his hobbies and routines.