The daily release of medical reports in the media offers new and important health knowledge to the general public. It also provides assisted living communities (ALs) with untapped opportunities to be on the cutting edge of resident care.
But the challenge is to filter through this information and make the relevant findings actionable. That is, how can knowledge that was just released today be used to improve the care of our residents…NOW, and put us on the cutting edge of resident care?
Here’s the latest example:
A new report has shown that patients who have both depression and COPD are at increased risk of readmission to the hospital.
OPPORTUNITY: For assisted living, this identifies a group of residents who will benefit from personalized care.
For example: in response to the article above, your analytics consultant could immediately deliver you a list of your residents who have both depression and lung disease. You could then meet with your staff and develop Quality Improvement Initiatives for this small group, such as:
- Connecting this group with their doctors to be sure that each of these conditions is being optimally managed.
- Starting a support group so that these residents could meet together weekly to discuss their thoughts and ideas of how to overcome the daily challenges they face.
- Educational sessions where this group is instructed on their medications, how to use inhalers properly in order to get the maximal benefit, becoming alerted to medication side effects, recognizing the early signs of breathing difficulties or depression, etc.
- Perhaps having a buddy system where the members of this small group would reach out to one another if they are becoming concerned about their depression.
- Educating your staff as to warning signs of early clinical deterioration for both COPD and depression.
- Other ideas your staff may formulate that would work best in your AL.
AL resident turnover is 54%, and at an estimated $4000/turnover, is a major source of financial loss. Furthermore, over 90% of resident turnover is due to declining health. Thus, a focus on resident health presents a huge opportunity to make a positive impact on your AL.
To reduce resident turnover and the associated financial loss, it is critical to identify medically high risk residents. Doing so allows ALs to pre-emptively implement programs targeting their high risk groups with staff training and education as well as personalized resident management that will help keep residents healthier longer.
By partnering with an analytics consultant, ALs now have the ability to turn newly released medical knowledge, hot off the presses, into immediate, actionable, and personalized care for their residents. By exploring their own resident health data, ALs can target specific residents who will benefit from new reports through the development of personalized and customized health management. The anticipated outcome? Improved profitability through better resident health, reduced resident turnover, and longer lengths of stay.
This “pre-emptive” approach for your different groups of high risk residents will attack potential problems BEFORE they become problems. This will help stabilize resident health and ward off preventable health deterioration. And your exemplary care will translate into financial benefits and market differentiation.
Dr. Steven Fuller
Dr. Steven Fuller is a triple board certified physician/entrepreneur who develops programs in support of an Integrated Care model of senior housing. This model includes 3 equal, interactive, and mutually supportive team members: real estate, hospitality, and healthcare. To reach Dr. Fuller, e-mail:
st**********@il*******************.com
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