- Research Article
- 10.1016/s1526-4114(08)60173-0
CMS Announces New Hospice Regulations
- Jul 01, 2008
- Caring for the Ages
- Kathleen Wilson
CMS Announces New Hospice Regulations
Paperwork and documentation requirements are not new to any healthcare provider. Hospice programs have numerous requirements for accurate, timely, and patient-specific documentation. The development of an individualized plan of care for the hospice patient and family using a tool that weaves all the required components together can be a valuable program asset. The framework of this tool is applicable to program movement toward care paths and computerized documentation. This article describes the combination of a well-known hospice problem list in a creative format where many of the essentials of documentation flow into one document: the Hospice Plan of Care.
CMS Announces New Hospice Regulations
CMS Announces New Hospice Regulations
Time to Dust Off Your Compliance Policies
Time to Dust Off Your Compliance Policies
The Development and Implementation of Radiation Oncology IQ Script Enabled Plans at the Odette Cancer Centre
The Development and Implementation of Radiation Oncology IQ Script Enabled Plans at the Odette Cancer Centre
Partnering with Families: Does a patient specific management plan improve communication for carers of children with medical complexities?
Introduction: Children with medical complexity have high care needs, functional limitations, and require frequent hospital presentations. This can be challenging for both children and their families. Despite often being well known to specialty and allied health teams involved in their care, carers reported frustrations with the need to continually provide their child’s medical history to multiple clinicians. Carers also report difficulty recalling information due to their child’s very complex detailed medical histories and lack of continuity with high turnover of healthcare staff. Clinicians also reported relevant information being scattered and difficult to find in the child’s electronic medical record (eMR). Aim: To develop a care management plan easily accessible for the cohort of General Medicine Chronic and Complex patients in collaboration with carers. Method: A survey was sent to 52 carers in February 2019 whose child was enrolled in Chronic and Complex Care at the time. This identified that all carers felt that a care plan would be of benefit to improve communication and care coordination. A team of clinicians from General Medicine came together to pilot the Chronic and Complex Individualized Care Plan – CCICP, working with the eMR team to develop a template. The template was first trialled using paper and then embedded in the eMR as a management care plan. Throughout template development, two Chronic and Complex Care Clinical Nurse Consultants (CNC) worked with carers seeking feedback on the content and the usability of the CCICP. The CCICP included a comprehensive summary of the patient’s demographics, diagnoses, medications, clinicians involved in care and specific management plans. All CCICPs were reviewed by carers and their primary lead clinicians prior to completion. The CCICP would be reviewed regularly at clinic appointments, admissions and updated with relevant new information. Evaluation of the CCICP was conducted via survey and informal feedback during care encounters. Key Findings: To date, 25 CCICPs have been completed. Progress was impacted by redeployment of staff during the COVID-19 Pandemic response. Interviews were conducted with five families and whilst an evaluation survey was sent to clinicians, there was a low response rate. However, verbal and informal feedback regarding the CCICP has been positive. Carers and clinicians reported ease of accessibility with the care plan uploaded to the eMR and printed copies given to carers. Benefits included improved communication between teams and families, more accurate clinical documentation. The care plans empowered carers to advocate for their child’s care, and reduced stress and burden of information repetition. Despite overwhelming benefits for the CCICP, resource limitations exist with the time taken to develop, complete and update the care plans in collaboration with carers. Future digital integration would enable a more dynamic document in the patient record accessible across community and private sector healthcare.
Read moreExploring the usefulness of comprehensive care plans for children with medical complexity (CMC): a qualitative study
BackgroundThe Medical Home model recommends that Children with Special Health Care Needs (CSHCN) receive a medical care plan, outlining the child’s major medical issues and care needs to assist with care coordination. While care plans are a primary component of effective care coordination, the creation and maintenance of care plans is time, labor, and cost intensive, and the desired content of the care plan has not been studied. The purpose of this qualitative study was to understand the usefulness and desired content of comprehensive care plans by exploring the perceptions of parents and health care providers (HCPs) of children with medical complexity (CMC).MethodsThis qualitative study utilized in-depth semi-structured interviews and focus groups. HCPs (n = 15) and parents (n = 15) of CMC who had all used a comprehensive care plan were recruited from a tertiary pediatric academic health sciences center. Themes were identified through grounded theory analysis of interview and focus group data.ResultsA multi-dimensional model of perceived care plan usefulness emerged. The model highlights three integral aspects of the care plan: care plan characteristics, activating factors and perceived outcomes of using a care plan. Care plans were perceived as a useful tool that centralized and focused the care of the child. Care plans were reported to flatten the hierarchical relationship between HCPs and parents, resulting in enhanced reciprocal information exchange and strengthened relationships. Participants expressed that a standardized template that is family-centered and includes content relevant to both the medical and social needs of the child is beneficial when integrated into overall care planning and delivery for CMC.ConclusionsCare plans are perceived to be a useful tool to both health care providers and parents of CMC. These findings inform the utility and development of a comprehensive care plan template as well as a model of how and when to best utilize care plans within family-centered models of care.
Read moreSuccessful incorporation of the Severe Head Injury Guidelines into a phased-outcome clinical pathway.
Clinical pathways have been proven to be valuable tools in improving outcomes in patients with neurological diagnoses. However, their use with trauma populations has been limited. The unpredictable nature of trauma makes it difficult to develop a day-by-day plan of care that would be applicable to all patients with the same trauma diagnosis. Nevertheless, a severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) clinical pathway was developed and implemented at a Level 1 Trauma Center with significant reductions in length of stay and number of ventilator days. With the publication of the Guidelines for the Management of Severe Head Injury, this pathway was refashioned into a severe TBI phased-outcome pathway. Rather than a day-by-day plan of care, this clinical pathway consists of four phases of care: (a) admission to the intensive care unit, (b) acute critical care, (c) mobility and weaning, and (d) pre-rehabilitation. After 12 months, the improvements accomplished by the original pathway have been maintained or exceeded.
Read moreEffect of Implementing Clinical Pathway to Improve Child-Birth and Neonatal Outcomes
Background: A clinical pathway is a multidisciplinary management tool based on evidence-based practice for a specific group of patients with a predictable clinical course, in which the different tasks "interventions" by the professionals involved in the patient care are defined, optimized and sequenced either by hour, day or visit. The aim of the present study was to examine the effect of implementing clinical Pathway to improve birth and neonatal outcomes. Design: Quasi-experimental study was used. Settings: this study was conducted at Maternal and child health center and labor unit of El-Basher Hospital /Amman Jordon. Subjects: The simple random sample of 150 mothers were selected and divided into equal group; intervention group (75 mothers who received clinical pathway during third trimester of pregnancy and/or labor) and control group 75 mothers who not received clinical pathway. Pregnant mothers were selected between 28-36 week antenatal visit, observed, and followed during labor for the use of pathway. Results of the study: revealed that there was significance difference between intervention and control groups concerning implementation of clinical pathway through application of "counting fetal movement and implementation of comfort measures", throughout the third trimester of pregnancy, labor process, that affect the progress and effect in reducing the severity of labor pain. There were significant differences among two studied group regarding pain intensity in relation to cervical dilatation CX 3-4 cm (11.570, 0.054* respectively), CX 5-7cm (13.348, 0.013* respectively) and CX 8-10 cm (12.671, 0.015* respectively). The duration of labor during all stages of labor were significant difference among studied groups (p p th minute and at 10th minute in intervention group were significant higher (6.9±1.1 and 8.8±1.3) than in control group (4.8±0.8 and 7.03±1.5). Conclusions: - The use of clinical care pathways: "counting fetal movement and implementation of comfort measures" for optimizing prenatal care had a positive influence on child birth process and neonatal outcomes in obstetric practice. Recommendations: 1. Application of clinical pathway for pregnant mothers is essential for improving maternal status, reducing complication and reducing the duration of hospital stay and better neonatal outcome. 2. Ongoing in-service training programs should be designed and implemented at delivery room to improve nurses' practices on the basis of nurse's actual needs.
Read moreIs Everything in the Garden Rosy? An Integrated Care Pathway for Acute Inpatient Mental Health Care, from Development to Evaluation: Part 2
This is the second paper of two, which considers the development, use and evaluation of an integrated care pathway (ICP) for acute inpatient mental health care. This paper reports an evaluation that was carried out to measure the impact of an ICP (described in Part 1) on the interventions it was designed to guide. The methodology used was pre- and post-ICP comparison of activities/care recorded in health-care records using delineating measures. Data were gathered from the notes of 23 service-users who had two inpatient stays within a year, one pre-ICP and one post-ICP. The findings suggested an overall improved provision of interventions, although as the ICP progressed the likelihood of receiving interventions fell. Three specific aspects were not affected by the ICP, these were giving information about observation levels to service-users, care planning and medical interventions. These issues are discussed and the conclusion raise implications for further ICP development and implementation.
Read moreWhose diabetes is it anyway?
Janet Kinson practised as a Diabetes Specialist Nurse in Birmingham and demonstrated a remarkable commitment to diabetes education by developing a programme to support what was then the newly-emerging profession of diabetes specialist nursing. She was forward thinking and saw the potential to do things differently, but insisted on high quality. As the nominated speaker for the Janet Kinson lecture I want to reflect upon my own experiences of working in diabetes and of some important changes that have happened over the last 25 years based on an ethos and value system which is fundamentally patient centred. If we consider the perspective of an individual with a long-term condition such as diabetes (Figure 1), it reminds us that all of the important activity to manage and look after diabetes takes places outwith the 20–30-minute, two to three times a year consultation (Figure 1: orange lines). And yet, as health care professionals, we sometimes expect that these regular visits to clinics will be enough to enable the person to manage their own health, claiming credit when people do ‘well’ and throwing our arms up in despair when targets aren't being achieved. In reality, we aren't in charge, we have a relatively limited role in managing diabetes, and outcomes are by and large driven by the person. I qualified as a dietitian in 1989 with a keen interest in diabetes, and I wanted to make a difference. However, I found my early career hugely frustrating because at that time there were no specialist diabetes posts and dietetics was usually delivered separately from the rest of diabetes care, with very little clinical information to draw upon to support decision making or to feed back to the person. People were sent to the dietitian as a form of punishment and as a last resort. I certainly didn't feel valued and I can't imagine the people who used the service found it as useful as it could be. It didn't really utilise any of the knowledge or skills I had spent four years learning at university. For me this all came to a head when I arrived at a general practice clinic and was faced by a receptionist who had forgotten I was coming and hadn't booked a clinic room. She showed me to the cleaning cupboard! I felt I might leave dietetics altogether. However, in 1994 I went for an interview at North Tyneside for a newly-created diabetes specialist dietitian post – one of the first of its kind. The post had been created following a local (unpublished) study which had developed a new role called a ‘Diabetes Advisor’. In the study, people with type 2 diabetes had been randomised to ongoing care with a nurse or a dietitian which turned out to be equally effective and acceptable to patients. Interestingly, the funding for this study had been obtained from Kellogg's since the usual sources of research funding felt it unethical to allow dietitians to be responsible for individual patient care. It was here that I met Dr Sue Roberts, who has been an inspiration to me and to so many people who have worked alongside her. The service she developed was unique and there were always opportunities to challenge the way things were done. There was a strong focus on organised and systematic care, with good links between primary and specialist care, facilitated by training and close working relationships. There were clear pathways; everyone knew their role and how things worked and we spent time examining data, reflecting on practice and tending to our training needs. The philosophy, principles and aims of the service were clear and written down (Figure 2). Every year we went to the local lighthouse and had a productive awayday. It was also an effective service, and I suspect one of the first examples of a properly integrated diabetes service. In 2004, one of the local GPs published data from the comprehensive diabetes register, which demonstrated that the outcomes across the whole population were as good as the intensively-controlled arm of the UKPDS trial.1 However, this was achieved with significantly less weight gain than expected. In our model of care, not only were dietitians seeing people and supporting lifestyle change, they were also supporting and up-skilling general practice staff in diabetes while keeping the specialist service appraised of what was happening in routine primary care. The team of nurses, doctors, podiatrists, physiologists and administrators were committed and passionate about what they did. What really stood out was the way the team talked about and related to patients, with a huge amount of respect for the way they chose to manage their lives. We tried to use psychological rationale to understand behaviours and health beliefs to help us best know how to support people. I learnt a new phrase – unconditional positive regard. This was exemplified by the training and support we received from our psychologists: Dr Peter James and Dr Yvonne Doherty. They trained the whole team to understand and deliver much more psychologically-informed services and consultations. This wasn't just about motivational interviewing. We all had to develop new ways of consulting with people and a whole host of methods to maintain positive therapeutic relationships with patients and to challenge and support different ways of thinking. Working in this way has cemented for me the critical nature of high-quality consultation and communication skills within diabetes and long-term conditions care. This is demonstrated in our local Dove Data which show a strong association between patient involvement, good glycaemic outcomes and lower costs for prescribing. Perhaps as a result of this environment, I began to think about people who were starting insulin and the local and national data that showed people weren't seeing the improvements they expected. It's a huge step for someone to make the transition to an injectable therapy and so, if it doesn't work, it reduces their confidence in making a difference to their own outcomes. It also diminishes their trust and relationship with the diabetes team. So I led the trial of a very structured approach which we called a ‘pre-insulin assessment’. This included a detailed assessment, giving consistent messages and information about choices, leading to a plan to maximise all current therapy (lifestyle and medication). At the same time, we learnt about the concerns the individual might have about current and future treatment – a form of supported shared decision making. The impact was clear – only 50% of people needed to start insulin and, for those who did, glycaemic goals were achieved with much less weight gain than predicted.2, 3 This is now part of our routine care pathway for people with type 2 diabetes. Our dietitians make decisions to directly refer people to groups or 1:1 injectable starts, avoiding unnecessary appointments and delays and freeing up space in outpatient clinics for people who really need to see a consultant. This was developed in specialist care but now happens in general practice and has become a ‘next steps assessment’ due to the broader range of therapeutic options now available. The next steps assessment is an example of several dietetically-led initiatives which have improved the outcomes and involvement of those with diabetes in our patch – our expertise is about food, but we integrate that into discussions about other diabetes treatments and medicines and psychological approaches which are, in turn, integrated into the rest of routine diabetes care. As a result of leading on this, I became the first consultant diabetes dietitian. This is all in stark contrast to my beginnings as a newly-qualified dietitian (trying to avoid the cleaning cupboard!), but it does demonstrate that dietitians can make a huge contribution to the overall work in diabetes and how important it is to ensure this sometimes underutilised group of professionals are integrated into routine diabetes care and given the chance to develop and lead. We now have 10 whole-time-equivalent dietitians working across primary and specialist care, and the team continues to develop new effective approaches based on our learning. One of these, which had a huge impact on our professional group, was structured patient education, starting with DAFNE. At the time, we were first looking at the intensified insulin programme developed by Michael Berger's team in Germany; carbohydrate counting had been assigned to the dusty shelves of history. At that point, carbohydrate counting was associated with very restrictive, inflexible diets in which a daily prescription of carbohydrate was made up from a fairly limited ‘exchange’ list. These diets were not in keeping with nutritional guidelines for the general population. As a result, the dietetic profession had shunned the approach and instead focused on qualitative dietary regimens (low glycaemic index and healthy eating). In addition, the food messages for both type 1 and type 2 diabetes were the same. The Dusseldorf team had demonstrated that their programme supported people to achieve clinically-significant improvements in glycaemic control without an increase in severe hypoglycaemia.4 Our visiting team from King's, Sheffield and Northumbria observed their type 1 training programme, which focused entirely on carbohydrate counting and insulin dose adjustment to achieve both flexibility and better clinical outcomes. We were amazed at how well it worked. On our return, although we were very enthusiastic, the dietetic profession was unsure and took a lot of persuading and retraining to take on the approach. Carbohydrate counting is now the acknowledged dietary strategy and evidence-based practice in terms of nutritional therapy in type 1 diabetes and is recommended in all national and international guidelines.5 DAFNE was accepted by professionals because we were able to use the UK feasibility study to show that it improves glycaemic outcomes without a deterioration in weight and cardiovascular risk.6 It also improves quality of life, and has subsequently been shown to reduce unplanned health care utilisation.7 However, what makes DAFNE important to me is that it gives people with diabetes the knowledge, skills and confidence to manage their diabetes on a day-by-day basis. I was asked to join a kick-off meeting for type 2 structured education and was keen to use my experience from DAFNE to support people with type 2 diabetes. At a local level we wanted to retain a high-quality approach but the numbers of those with type 2 diabetes were increasing significantly. In developing the DESMOND programme, we were particularly aware of the impact of health beliefs and behaviour change in the management of type 2 diabetes. We therefore focused on a patient-centred philosophy and underpinning psychological theories. The programme uses an approach in which people are given information and are supported to make their own decisions around goals and actions in order to manage their own diabetes.8 In the same way that Janet Kinson had applied rigorous standards to the training of diabetes nurses, both the DESMOND and DAFNE group felt that the same principles should apply to the development and roll-out of structured education. In order to do this we developed rigorous methods of training and quality assuring the programmes. In my role as chair of the DAFNE educator group, I worked alongside a strong team who developed a train-the-trainer and quality assurance process for educators and DAFNE courses.10 This was supported by the development of national guidelines for structured education.11 Sadly, the importance of standards in education is still not accepted everywhere. We would never prescribe half doses of medication; it is still common practice to deliver education programmes which do not meet national standards and have no evidence. From a personal perspective I find it hard to believe that my daughter has had more hours of driving lessons than my nephew, who has type 1 diabetes, has received in education about how to manage his diabetes. North Tyneside joined the Year of Care programme in 2007. I was keen to get involved as it seemed to fit with the ethos and values of our diabetes service, and also seemed the next logical step to support people who have attended structured education. I had also seen at first hand the impact of Quality and Outcomes Framework on the behaviours and attitudes of professionals towards people with diabetes. In some instances, the focus on ticking boxes seemed to dominate the need to develop good therapeutic relationships with patients. It felt as if the focus had shifted away from supporting people with their diabetes and talking about their concerns, health beliefs or ideas. I saw the Year of Care approach as a means to address this. I am now the National Director for this programme and our small team of trainers, clinical leads and programme managers has worked with a significant number of organisations to provide support, training and practical tools to implement this approach in primary and specialist care. If you consider the perspective of a person living with a long-term condition, highlighted in Figure 1, it emphasises the significance of the person being in the driving seat of their own care, with a need for the system and the professions within it to support the person to be in charge of their own health and wellbeing. The Year of Care approach was designed with people living with diabetes who wanted to get more out of the time they spend with health care professionals. The approach introduces care and support planning and links with support for self-management. This is enabled by a change in how care is organised and through training of health care professionals. The changes that need to take place at both a practice and system level are detailed in the Year of Care house (Figure 3). Care and support planning requires a redesign of the traditional annual review, splitting it into a two-step process (Figure 4). This involves an initial disease surveillance review with a trained health care assistant (where all care processes are completed in a single appointment) and then a conversation a few weeks later focused entirely on involving and supporting the individual.12 The whole process is enabled by the sharing of information with the patient between the disease surveillance review and the care and support planning conversation. One of the key differences with this approach is the introduction of information sharing where agenda-setting prompts and routine results are shared with the person with diabetes before their care and support planning conversation. While some practitioners can be sceptical about this additional step, people with diabetes and other long-term conditions find this really helpful and feel it makes them more equal to the health care professional during the care and support planning conversation. It saves time, helps people see what is happening and reminds us all about who these results actually belong to. Some of the comments from people with diabetes who have experienced care and support planning are shown in Box 1. The purpose of changing the process is to create the space for a more useful conversation for the person with a focus on planning. People find it a completely different experience and it supports their understanding of their condition. The impact has been positive in terms of how valuable it feels for both the staff involved and the individuals with diabetes. It has improved care process completion and has improved outcomes. However, not all health care professionals find these new conversations easy and our training and support programme aims to help with this. The approach is now being used for many other conditions, including those relating to people who live with multiple long-term conditions. I have learnt some key lessons as I have tried to develop my role and that of my dietetic colleagues, while considering how best to go about supporting people with diabetes. These apply at a number of levels and are exemplified in the Year of Care house (Figure 3). The house needs all elements to be embedded and happening systematically, with care delivery and systems designed with the focus of people with diabetes as the central care givers.13 If we think about ‘whose diabetes it is’, we are more likely to design and deliver services which recognise that individuals with diabetes take on most of the actions that can deliver better outcomes in diabetes. This can therefore be supported by activities around the left-hand wall of the house (engaged, informed patient) with routine implementation of high-quality care and support planning so that people can have better conversations about their health. Education should be embedded into core care pathways and throughout the patient's journey. We should also be aware that support and activities embedded in communities can have a profound impact on how people live well with their diabetes. For health care professionals (right-hand wall of the house), all of our effort and activities should be geared towards supporting the person to understand and manage their diabetes. Having a patient-centred philosophy of care and good communication skills is as important as being up to date with the evidence base. Teams need to work together and squeeze out the contribution of all team members. Creating systems (the roof and the foundation of the house) that support improving the knowledge, skills, confidence and motivation of people with diabetes to live their lives and manage their conditions will make the biggest difference to health care. Outcomes ultimately depend on the individual; however, our systems of care and quality of care can be barriers or enablers. The most important people in a service are those with diabetes and so our systems of care need to be designed around the central role that people with diabetes play in managing their own care.
Read moreTowards more goal-oriented care through care coordination and care planning.
The increasing aging of our society is putting increasing pressure on the current organization of care and support. This moved the Flemish government to a thorough reform of primary care in Flanders. This was started in 2017. The reform involves changes in terms of content, structural support and instrumental support. All these changes should lead to care and support that can be organized using the principles of integrated care and goal-oriented care. The major challenges are: - bring about a change in mentality among care providers toward these principles of integrated care and goal-oriented care; - make a connection between health care and welfare care, as well as between primary care and more specialized care, and align the processes of care and support. In addition, it is necessary to translate the principles of goal-oriented care into practical tools and accelerate methodology development. We are working together with several partners in Flanders for this purpose. In goal-oriented care, an important role is reserved for the care coordinator. The care coordinator is the focal point of the care team who, as a member of the care team, takes on the task of: - maintain an overview of the care process; - ensure that all care and support, determined on the basis of the person's care or support needs and translated into life goals and care and support goals, is coordinated, monitored and evaluated. Care coordination in a care process maintains a focus on goals, both the person's own life goals and the care and support goals of the care team. For implementing qualitative care coordination, the care and support plan is an indispensable tool within the Flemish reform. This care and support plan must: - allow an overview of the sometimes multitude of care and support goals; - be a means of communication between the members of the care team (including the person himself and his informal care); - reflect the extent to which care agreements are met; - allow the care process to be monitored, evaluated and adjusted if necessary. In the near future we want to design this care and support plan in a digital way. The care coordinator must have a wide range of competencies in order to coordinate the care process in a quality manner, including: - mastering to perfection the methodology of goal-oriented care, interview techniques, conflict management, process guidance, process analysis, coordination and organization skills; - being the point of contact for the person with a care and support need; - be able to play the bridge between the person, informal care and professional care providers. In this presentation, we focus on the role of the care coordinator throughout the care process and the planning aspect. We propose how the Flemish government want to develop this role in the future. We also reflect on the preconditions that are necessary to achieve a solid implementation of this role, and indicate what opportunities we see to promote and accelerate the change in mentality in this regard.
Read moreA micro-costing analysis of post-fracture care pathways: results from the International Costs and Utilities Related to Osteoporotic Fractures Study (ICUROS)
SummaryThis study identified the costs and health-related quality of life impacts of several post-fracture multidisciplinary care pathways specific to individual skeletal site (hip, distal forearm, vertebrae, humerus). These care pathways may assist healthcare providers in allocating resources for osteoporotic fractures in more effective and cost-efficient ways.IntroductionThis micro-costing study was undertaken to provide the estimated healthcare costs of several fracture site-specific health service use pathways associated with different trajectories of health-related quality of life (HRQoL) 12-months post-fracture.MethodsThe study included 4126 adults aged ≥ 50 years with a fragility fracture (1657 hip, 681 vertebrae, 1354 distal forearm, 434 humerus) from the International Costs & Utilities Related to Osteoporotic fractures Study (ICUROS). ICUROS participants were asked to recall the frequency and duration (where applicable) of their health and community care service use at 4- and 12-month follow-up visits. Patient-level costs were identified and aggregated to determine the average cost of healthcare use related to the fracture in each care pathway (presented in Australian 2021 dollars). Mean cost differences were calculated and analysed using a one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and post hoc Bonferroni correction to determine any statistically significant differences.ResultsThe total direct cost of fractures was estimated at $89564, $38926, $18333, and $38461AUD per patient for hip, vertebral, wrist, and humeral participants, respectively. A Kruskal–Wallis test yielded a statistically significant difference in cost values between most care pathways (p < 0.001). Of the 20 care pathways, those associated with recovery of HRQoL had lower mean costs per patient across each fracture site.ConclusionsThis study identified the costs and HRQoL impacts of several multidisciplinary care pathways for individual fracture sites based on the health service utilization of an international cohort of older adults. These care pathways may assist healthcare providers in allocating resources for fragility fractures in more effective and cost-efficient ways.
Read moreProstate Cancer: Survivorship Care Case Study, Care Plan, and Commentaries.
This case study highlights the patient's status in care plan format and is followed by commentaries from expert nurse clinicians about their approach to manage the patient's long-term or chronic cancer care symptoms. Finally, an additional expert nurse clinician summarizes the care plan and commentaries, emphasizing takeaways about the patient, the commentaries, and additional recommendations to manage the patient. As can happen in clinical practice, the patient's care plan is intentionally incomplete and does not include all pertinent information. Responding to an incomplete care plan, the nurse clinicians offer comprehensive strategies to manage the patient's status and symptoms. For all commentaries, each clinician reviewed the care plan and did not review each other's commentary. The summary commentary speaks to the patient's status, care plan, and nurse commentaries.
Read moreBreast Cancer: Survivorship Care Case Study, Care Plan, and Commentaries.
This case study highlights the patient's status in care plan format and is followed by commentaries from expert nurse clinicians about their approach to manage the patient's long-term or chronic cancer care symptoms. Finally, an additional expert nurse clinician summarizes the care plan and commentaries, emphasizing takeaways about the patient, the commentaries, and additional recommendations to manage the patient. As can happen in clinical practice, the patient's care plan is intentionally incomplete and does not include all pertinent information. Responding to an incomplete care plan, the nurse clinicians offer comprehensive strategies to manage the patient's status and symptoms. For all commentaries, each clinician reviewed the care plan and did not review each other's commentary. The summary commentary speaks to the patient's status, care plan, and nurse commentaries.
Read moreDeveloping, Documenting, and Defending Your Hospice Care: An Advanced Curriculum (P5) (Advanced)
Developing, Documenting, and Defending Your Hospice Care: An Advanced Curriculum (P5) (Advanced)
Say Goodbye to Wet-to-Dry Wound Care Dressings
Say Goodbye to Wet-to-Dry Wound Care Dressings