Title
Helping Continuing Care Retirement Communities Determine the Best Level of Care for Each Patient
Document Type
Abstract
Publication Date
1-2020
Academic Year
2019-2020
Abstract
Background: Continuing Care Retirement Communities (CCRCs) consists of various neighborhoods and care spaces for senior adults. The neighborhoods are organized and residents are housed based on “levels of care” (LOC), Independent, Assisted, and Nursing. During scheduled interprofessional meetings, the CCRC leadership has the critical task of understanding the residents’ needs and assigning them to the appropriate LOC. Currently, the process of completing this task lacks the necessary structure, which engenders challenges in making recommendations in a systematic way. This project seeks to offer the CCRC interprofessional team a structured approach to determine which LOC and its resources would best serve each individual resident.
Methods: User-centered research began at a CCRC, The Hill at Whitemarsh, in Summer 2019. Interviews with administration, employees, and patients were organized. Meetings with employees were observed. Preliminary LOC checklists and questionnaires were tested at The Hill’s biweekly LOC meetings and a final tool was produced.
Results: The administration felt the lack of structure during the biweekly LOC meetings led to inefficient discussion and decision-making. The meetings also did not take into consideration patient individuality. The Interprofessional care team preferred a list of questions that was arranged with the intent to guide discussion, with enough freedom to consider the uniqueness of each elder.
Conclusion: This tool provides the CCRC Level of Care team with a format to guide their meetings and carefully consider the needs of each resident. Based on feedback, the administration believes this tool improves the efficiency and structure of their discussions. One limitation of this project is time. To improve the validity, the project can be extended to accurately determine the success of the tool for meeting efficiency and patient satisfaction.
Recommended Citation
Ezeonu, Sopuru; Safian, Nicholas; Schultheis, Grant; Klein, Austin; and Snyderman, MD, Danielle, "Helping Continuing Care Retirement Communities Determine the Best Level of Care for Each Patient" (2020). Phase 1. Paper 22.
https://jdc.jefferson.edu/si_des_2022_phase1/22
Language
English
