Foundation for Long Term Care

Project Title

Efficient and Cost-Effective Care Planning

Award Amount

$354,958

Location

Albany

Web Site

http://www.nyahsa.org/foundation/

Date Awarded

December 10, 2007

New York State requires that a care plan be written at least four times a year for every nursing home resident. While these plans are important documents intended to manage individual nursing home residents’ health, existing care plan processes are inefficient, lengthy, and repetitive. This grant to the Foundation for Long Term Care will support development of a new, more efficient care planning process.

The Foundation for Long Term Care seeks to replace this wasteful care planning process with one that is efficient and cost-saving. The project aims to reduce the administrative burden of this regulated activity, and replace it with care documentation that more clearly and succinctly outlines the best way to care for an individual nursing home patient.

As part of this project, FLTC will train more than 1,500 staff members at 15 nursing homes to implement the Efficient and Cost-Effective Care Planning project, which is based on a successful model developed by the Wisconsin Department of Health. This project will eliminate inappropriate use of staff time by transforming the existing care planning process into one that is highly personalized, and requires less time to write and implement. The project will evaluate the cost savings related to staff efficiency, resident care, and overall facility costs. The results from the intervention group will be compared across nursing home facilities before and after intervention implementation.