Seattle - Qualis Health, an independent nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the quality of healthcare, announced the results of a year-long nationwide project implementing a new model designed to improve the quality of life for local nursing home residents. The new model, referred to as person-directed care (PDC), is a concept gaining increasing popularity among the top nursing home reformers.
Longer life expectancies and an aging baby-boom population will increase the number of people living in nursing homes. The QIO-led project evaluated whether quality improvement organizations could be effective in supporting adoption of person-directed care in nursing homes. Person-directed care represents a considerable shift from the more traditional, institutional approaches used in nursing homes. It bases nursing home care design on individual resident preferences rather than the widely used and often inflexible models of the past.
“The person-directed care model focuses on putting the power back in the hands of residents, which naturally improves their quality of life,” said Deanna Ogle, care manager at St. Francis Extended Health Care in Bellingham, WA, a nursing home that participated in the study. “While many nursing homes have taken steps to improve their environments, Qualis Health, as the local quality improvement organization, brought a methodology, experience, and resources necessary to help implement these changes.”
The pilot study is part of a national Collaborative led by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and at the regional level, involved local nursing homes including St. Francis Extended Health Care; WarmBeach, of Stanwood; and Ida Culver House Broadview in Seattle and others. As the quality improvement organization for Washington, Alaska and Idaho, Qualis Health was one of 22 quality improvement organizations (QIOs) nationwide participating in the study.
Specific best practices tested in this study included:
- Adoption of the “neighborhood model” of care
- Revision of resident schedules to better accommodate personal preferences
- Change in the bathing process and environments
- Noise level reduction
- Techniques to increase staff satisfaction and retention
Information gathered from this study, in turn, will be shared among other quality improvement organizations and nursing homes nationwide in order to rapidly increase the adoption of PDC. Beginning in August 2005, when QIOs begin their next CMS contract cycle, person-directed care will be an important priority.
