PICKER INSTITUTE LONG-TERM CARE RESEARCH AGENDA
Consistent with Picker Institute’s credo that quality of life is as important as quality of clinical care in all healthcare settings, the Institute inaugurated its long-term care program in March 2008, taking the mission to promote patient-centered care to the nursing home arena. Under one aspect of the program, Picker awards grants to support research agenda initiatives aimed at improving the quality of life in all LTC settings, with the goal of making patient-centered care a reality in many more nursing homes throughout the country.
“ACHIEVING STAFF STABILITY AND IMPROVING PERFORMANCE: A NURSING HOME LEADER’S GUIDE”
Principal investigator: Mariana Kern Grachek, MSN, CNHA, CALA, American College of Health Care Administrators
Co-Principal investigator: Barbara Frank, B&F Consulting
Overview: The American College of Health Care Administrators received a long-term care grant to produce a book on achieving staff stability and improving performance. The now titled Meeting the Leadership Challenge in Long-Term Care: What You Do Matters, written by Barbara Frank, David Farrell and Cathy Brady, was published in early April2011. ACHCA plans to work with the authors and other long-term care colleagues to distribute the book widely among practitioner and academic networks.
“CREATING HOME:
ADVOCATING FOR CHANGE IN HOW AND WHERE WE AGE”
Principal investigator: Megan Hannon, Executive Director, Pioneer Network
Overview: In collaboration with its partners, Pioneer Network developed this consumer education pilot in response to the growing realization that consumer awareness of and advocacy for culture change are critical to its widespread dissemination. Partners included the American Association of Homes & Services for the Aging, American College of Health Care Administrators, American Health Care Association, American Medical Directors Association, The Coalition of Geriatric Nursing Organizations and National Consumer Voice for Quality Long-Term Care.
“VIVE: DEVELOPMENT OF TOOLS TO IMPROVE NURSING HOME PROVIDERS ASSESSMENT SKILLS”
Principal Investigator: Debra Saliba, MD, MPH, Director, UCLA/Borun Center for Gerontological Research
Overview: VIVE:The Video on Interviewing Vulnerable Elders, which was released in July 2010, is a tool to teach care managers how to interview nursing home residents using the MDS (Minimum Data Set) 3.0 implemented by CMS in October 2010. As of the end of September 2011, it had been viewed on the Picker Institute and other web sites more than 13,500 times.
“NURSING HOMES AS CLINICAL TRAINING SITES: RECOMMENDATIONS TO THE FIELD”
Principal investigator: Mathy Mezey, EdD, RN, FAAN, College of Nursing, Hartford Institute of Geriatric Nursing
Overview: The goal of this project is to develop and disseminate a module to be used as a core training tool in presentations on how to maximize the use of nursing homes as clinical training sites. Recommendations will seek to improve the number, quality and preparedness of nursing and other academic healthcare programs using nursing homes as clinical training sites, and to improve readiness to serve as clinical training sites.
“LONG-TERM CARE IMPROVEMENT GUIDE”
Principal investigator: Susan Frampton, PhD, President, Planetree
Overview: Following the model of the highly successful Patient-Centered Care Improvement Guide, published in October 200 by Picker Institute and Planetree, the Long-Term Care Improvement Guide serves as a practical resource for long-term care organizations that are working to become more patient-centered. It explores the experiences of residents, their families and their caregivers in long-term care settings across the country and highlights practices that have been developed to meet the needs of this population in an environment where expectations, preferences and different from those in a hospital setting.
“TIMESLIPS”
Principal investigator: Anne Basting, PhD, Director, Center on Age and Community
Overview: The mission of TimeSlips, by replacing memory with imagination, is to bring meaningful, creative engagement into the lives of people dealing with dementia resulting from conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease and stroke, and to help create person-centered care environments for people with dementia. TimeSlips envisions a society where people with dementia and memory loss and their caregivers have the highest possible quality of life and a society free of the stigma so often associated with dementia and memory loss.
“THE PICKER PAPERS:
A SYMPOSIUM ON CULTURE CHANGE AND DINING”
In February 2010, a mid-Atlantic snowstorm forced the cancellation of a symposium on culture change and dining sponsored by Picker Institute and presented by Pioneer Network and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid. Believing that the information that had been assembled for the symposium was much too important to go unheeded, Pioneer Network developed the material into The Picker Papers, a dynamic learning experience featuring a comprehensive background paper and Webinars of presentations by nine of the most sought-after minds in culture change and dining.
“THE PICKER REPORT ON AGING WITH DR. BILL THOMAS”
The goal of this partnership, which began in May 2010, is to raise public awareness of and build support for making long-term care person-centered. To that end, the project has taken advantage of the tremendous scope and delivery of the social media network. Bill Thomas is known throughout the world for his passionate advocacy of elders and elderhood, which he believes do not receive the attention or respect they deserve. Using videos, blogs, commentary and news updates on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and the other social media, he is building a strong connection among people who share his and Picker Institute’s vision of how person-centeredness can bring a high degree of quality to long-term care.
In 2009 Dr. Thomas was the first winner of the Picker Award for Excellence® in the Advancement of Patient-Centered Care in a Long-Term Care Setting.