Saturday, July 04, 2009
QUALITY CARE CONNECTIONS
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Scott & White Memorial Hospital – Temple, Texas
This project will bridge the gap between hospital and community for family caregivers. The nursing staff from Scott & White Memorial Hospital will provide identified Alzheimer caregivers with a packet of informational resources and a risk assessment that has been adopted from the REACH II intervention. The risk assessment will guide follow-up services within the Scott and White Family Resource Center and the AAA. Dr. Alan Stevens, another of the original REACH II investigators, will assist with implementation of the program.
Intervention Delivered by
Hospital Nursing staff (LVNs and RNs)
In hospital and in hospital’s Family Resource Center
Individuals with Alzheimer’s Disease
Family caregivers of Alzheimer’s Disease patients
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300 dementia patients / 300 caregivers
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40 staff members
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Hospital’s Electronic Record Program will prompt nurses to identify caregivers of Alzheimer’s patients.
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Nurses give caregivers a packet containing a REACH II risk assessment.
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After risk assessment is filled out and collected, a “family profile” assessment is tailored for each caregiver.
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Follow-up services are provided by the staff at Scott and White or through referral services by the AAA for those caregivers determined to be at-risk.
Academic/technical assistance provided
Texas A&M/Scott and White Memorial Hospital staff staff will provide training and on-going consultation to nursing staff.
Principal Investigator: Dr. Alan Stevens
Program on Aging & Care Web Site
Project Update - June 17, 2008
Staff has implemented the project on six floors at Scott & White Hospital now, and several caregivers have enrolled in the program. They have continued to educate the nurses about the project and who the packets should go to. As an extra incentive, staff began rewarding nurses with Wal-Mart gift cards when they refer an eligible caregiver to the program. The gift card incentive program serves as an additional reminder to the busy nursing staff.
The staff is currently following the enrolled caregivers throughout their tailored treatment intervention plans and are working with them in many areas of need identified through the "Family Profile". It is also encouraging that word is spreading outside of the hospital about the program. Three of their eligible caregivers were not identified in the hospital but instead called about the program when they heard about it through the newspaper or word-of-mouth.
The Scott & White project staff announced recently that their proposal to present at the national Alzheimer's Association's annual Dementia Care Conference has been accepted. The conference is scheduled for August 24-27, 2008 in Garden Grove, California. This conference provides care professionals with the opportunity to connect with peers from around the country, learn from renowned aging experts, and participate in educational programs tailored to address the unique needs and demands of the profession.
Scott & White's 45-minute education session will be entitled "Scott and White's Aging and Care Family Resource Center: Evidenced-based Interventions Available to Family Caregivers". After the conference, we'll provide a link to the Scott and White presentation.
Project Update - April 24, 2008
The staff of the Scott & White Program on Aging and Care and the Central Texas AAA utilize ServicePoint software which allows for seamless delivery of services to caregivers enrolled in their program. ServicePoint allows project staff to make instant referrals to the AAA’s Aging and Disabilty Resource Center and other providers in the area. Once caregiver information is entered into ServicePoint, all area providers are updated with the same information. This eliminates a great deal of red tape and repetitive data entry. Caregivers are more likely to access support services if they don’t have to navigate the system on their own.
Project Update - April 9, 2008
The project staff at Scott & White Hospital began the project on only a few units of the hospital, selecting the units with the most dementia/Alzheimer's admissions. They are preparing to systematically roll the project out to all units of the hospital over the next few months.
During a recent visit to Scott & White, representatives from the RCI and Johnson & Johnson were able to visit the
Aging and Care Family Resource Center. The Resource Center was designed specifically for the project and is intended to be a welcoming, peaceful atmosphere for the caregivers to come in at any time and discuss the intervention plans and assessments we discussed with them. See photos from the Family Resource Center.
Project staff are confident that enrollment in the program will increase significantly as they roll out to every hospital unit, and nursing staff become accustomed to delivering the caregiving packets and directing caregivers to the program.
Project Update - March 12, 2008
The first caregiver has been enrolled in the program! We have created a "Family Profile" for her from her REACH II Risk assessment and currently in the follow-up phase with her, which consists of phone calls, mail-outs, and invitations to come into our Family Resource Center.
Interest in the project is growing. Dr. Stevens and Emily Smith have been invited to present the project to the nurses at a Research Nursing Conference later in the month.
Project Update - January 29, 2008
At the end of January, the Site Director met with the nursing managers, directors, and educators at the hospital to discuss the project and get their input into the logistics of what we have planned. The next step involved participating in the nursing floor meetings and introducing the program to the nurses. The staff was very excited about the program!
Staff developed the Caregiver packets and worked with the IT team to place “prompts” in the nursing electronic records. Specifically,the prompts occur when a caregiver of any sort is identified in the hospital. The prompt then says ‘If the caregiver is caring for an Alzheimer’s/dementia patient, please give them the CAREGIVER PACKET’.
A room was set up to serve as the Family Resource Center, where staff will conduct the risk assessment on the caregivers and tailor a ‘Family Profile’ assessment for them. With all these factors in place, the project began.