Written on October 18th, 2011 by tasha
Anyone who has read my blog for long knows that I am passionately dedicated to helping families engage in the care of their loved ones. The recent focus on care transitions highlights the importance of what I call the “home team” (patient and family) in promoting adherence and recognizing problems before they escalate to a re-admission.
Two weeks ago, in San Diego, I delivered a workshop at the NHPCO Clinical Team Conference on using the Internet safely to collaborate across the continuum. I highlighted ways that providers can share information in HIPAA-compliant fashion, with each other, but ALSO with patients and their family caregivers. The emphasis was on tools that facilitate the four factors that tend to reduce re-admissions, as demonstrated by the research of Dr. Eric Coleman of the University of Colorado:
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Tags: Care continuum, e-patient
Posted in Collaboration, Family Caregivers, Technology
Written on October 4th, 2011 by tasha
I’ve been on a blogpost roll with search engine optimization techniques. But spending these last few days in Las Vegas at the Conference of the National Association of Home Care and Hospice, I decided to break things up a bit and post about highlights that have jumped out at me so far:
- Concise summary of current Medicare issues for hospice (aka, “if you’re feeling tired, there’s a reason!”)
- Gee whiz technology innovations (some of which we may be incorporating into our educational web templates)
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Tags: Care continuum, telehealth
Posted in Collaboration, Internet Marketing, Technology, Uncategorized
Written on April 6th, 2011 by tasha
I was recently doing some research on adherence and ran across this “old friend,” a favorite study (Bogardus and colleagues, 2004) that demonstrated the value of getting the family caregiver on board.
We all know that non-adherence is a big issue in elder care. This was formerly referred to as “non-compliance,” but the term smacked of paternalism and has since been replaced with “non-adherence,” recognizing that the patient’s role is much more active than that of a compliant servant to the whims of medicine.
This Yale University study was conducted with 176 patient/family caregiver dyads at a geriatric assessment center. The focus was to specifically understand the family caregiver’s impact on adherence and presumably outcomes over the course of a year. Patient/family dyads went through the clinic’s standard assessment procedure, after which the family caregiver was asked to participate in a phone interview a week later and then a year later.
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Posted in Collaboration, Family Caregivers, Research Results
Written on March 2nd, 2011 by tasha
The National Transitions of Care Coalition (NTOCC) has put together a superb, evidence-based crosswalk detailing essential elements needed for a successful program that eases a patient’s move from one care setting to another. Included in the document are seven intervention categories with descriptions and examples based on a very large compendium of research the coalition generously makes available free to the public.
As you have no doubt heard by now, CMS will be penalizing doctors and hospitals that have high 30-day readmission rates. A recent study demonstrated that within a month of discharge, over 20% of Medicare beneficiaries were re-hospitalized for the same condition they had been treated for earlier. This has been very costly for Medicare (and therefore us taxpayers!). The thinking is that patients are being released before they are fully stabilized, or being released to a home situation that is unable to cope with the demands of their serious condition.
The penalty is designed as an incentive to be sure patients are being discharged responsibly with adequate follow-up care. (Amen to that! Too often family members are called upon to perform fairly complicated care regimens with little to no training, or choice in the matter.)
This new penalty provides an excellent opportunity for elder care professionals to collaborate with doctors and hospitals by offering a home care team that is able to provide the necessary coaching and support to patients and their families.
There is a strong patient/family empowerment intent on the part of CMS. I’m pleased to say that my clients and those who read my blog share this ethic, which is also a key component in NTOCC’s outline. Since our mission is to help families and providers make better use of the Internet for superior care, I’ve included empowering tech suggestions here within this synopsis of the coalition’s crosswalk.
If you are planning to present yourself as a partner-in-care, here are the 7 intervention categories recommended to create a successful care transitions program:
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Tags: Care continuum, Elder Pages Online
Posted in Collaboration, Elder Care
Written on January 18th, 2011 by tasha
The Pew Internet and American Life project just released a report in December on the impact of the Internet on patients with cancer, and interestingly, cancer research. Drawing on statistics from their on-going studies, the Cancer 2.0 report illuminates some interesting facts:
- 62% of adults living with one or more chronic diseases go online.
- 80% of adults who provide care to their parents or another loved one have Internet access.
- About 20% of all Internet users have gone online to find others who might have the health same condition.
- Of all the chronic disease groups, patients with cancer are the most engaged with their care.
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Tags: e-patient, participatory medicine
Posted in Blogging, Collaboration, Facebook, Research Results, Social Networking, Technology, Twitter
