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Biomedical subjects

R Grower

Publications and source records attributed to R Grower.

5 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1996

Case management: meeting the needs of chronically ill patients in an HMO.

Primary care staff education plays a critical role in a health plan making a transition from a case management model to a model that emphasizes close care coordination for chronically ill patients with multiple care needs. Multidisciplinary teams can help refine the system to have a positive impact on care across diverse settings: Health Plan of Nevada found that such training aids staff in identifying at-risk individuals and in developing plans for preventive health screening activities, medication compliance, and needs assessment.

Activities of Daily Living↗
PubMed1992

Dementia and the nursing home: association with care needs.

OBJECTIVE: To determine whether RUG reimbursement categories accurately predict requirements for care in nursing homes. DESIGN: Prospective descriptive study of residents in lower reimbursement categories according to RUG. SETTING: Three nursing homes in New York City. PARTICIPANTS: Convenience sample of 173 residents who agreed to participate, not significantly different from 201 who did not agree to participate. MAIN MEASURES: Chart review; assessment of residents' cognitive and functional abilities; nursing assistants' ratings of residents' functional abilities, behavioral problems, the amount of effort required in care; and time-motion studies of staff-resident interactions. RESULTS: Both the residents' RUG classification (P less than 0.01) and the level of ADL independence (P less than 0.001) had significant impacts on the staff effort required in their care, with more dependent residents requiring greater effort. The residents' level of cognitive impairment also had a significant impact on the staff effort, with the severely impaired requiring greater effort (P less than 0.05). The time-motion analysis indicated that residents within the same RUG category differed in the number of staff-resident interactions based on their level of cognitive impairment. CONCLUSIONS: Cognitive impairment is a significant morbidity (or co-morbidity) in determining the quantity of staff effort required by the resident, and behavioral interventions are an important care component. There is marked heterogeneity within lower (RUG) reimbursement categories which translates into strikingly different care requirements.

Activities of Daily Living↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Participant evaluation and cost of a community-based health promotion program for elders.

There is little information on how best to provide health promotion and disease prevention services to elderly persons. This paper reports participants' perceptions of the effectiveness of a health promotion program consisting of health education classes and case management services. A single-group, posttest only design was used for the county-wide program, which operated independent of participants' primary care physicians. Each person received a thorough screening evaluation, was invited to health education classes, and was assigned a case manager for a 2-year health promotion period. Community residents 64-71 years of age were recruited; 475 entered the study, and 378 (79.6 percent) completed the followup evaluation interview. Only one-third of the participants attended at least one class, but a majority of those attending each class rated it very or extremely effective in increasing knowledge. To determine the effectiveness of the case managers, each participant identified the three health problems that were of greatest concern to him or her and indicated which of these priority problems were discussed with the case manager. Discussion with the case manager was significantly associated with continuing to see a personal physician for the problem, following the physician's recommendations, the problem's being under control, and the problem's improving over the 2-year followup. The classes and case management services benefited the participants who used them. How to best deliver these services to the target group needs further study.

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PubMedDate not supplied

Target groups for screening elderly outpatients.

A low-risk target group of 475 individuals 64-71 years of age was recruited from the community and received comprehensive screening assessments. Four hundred four unknown/untreated medical conditions were detected in 74.5% of the participants, but less than 5% of these conditions would have been detected using the most conservative screening procedures recommended for this age group. A more liberal, yet still focused, clinical evaluation could detect the medical conditions noted in 5% or more of the participants. However, 43% of the 279 unknown/untreated laboratory abnormalities were noted on tests that fulfill the more liberal of the accepted screening criteria. Despite a large number of detected conditions, an unfocused, comprehensive screening assessment is not recommended for this particular target group; rather, the use of a selective screening package is supported.

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