According to a new article from Newswise, a nearly $2 million grant was recently approved to address “the national imperative for innovative strategies to improve care for Medicare beneficiaries and reduce healthcare costs.”
The article states that more than 1.6 million Americans currently live in nursing homes, and approximately 60 percent of them are sent to emergency rooms, while 25 percent are admitted to hospitals in a given year.
While we can acknowledge many of these happen for natural medical reasons, experts estimate that 28 to 40 percent of these hospital admissions could be avoided with enhanced care in facilities across the country.
Dr. Joseph G. Ouslander leads a group of professionals attempting to curb hospitalizations in the United States. Their program, “Implementing Interventions to Reduce Hospitalizations of Nursing Home Residents” (“INTERACT”) is designed to “facilitate the early identification, assessment, documentation and communication about changes in the status of residents” through three key strategies:
- Preventing conditions from becoming severe enough to require acute hospital care.
- Managing selected acute conditions in the nursing home, and
- Improving advance care planning for residents among whom a palliative or comfort care plan, rather than acute hospitalization, may be appropriate.
Hopefully, INTERACT is successful in curbing injuries and hospitalizations at nursing homes and care facilities. Elder abuse and neglect are still big problems across America.
Take action if a care facility has caused injury to your loved one due to its negligence. For a free initial consultation, contact the Kosieradzki Smith Law Firm online or toll free at (877) 552-2873 today.
