Premium
P2‐246: Leadership model key to developing a successful, person‐centered memory care workforce
Author(s) -
Gilster Susan D.,
Dalessandro Jennifer L.
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
alzheimer's and dementia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 6.713
H-Index - 118
eISSN - 1552-5279
pISSN - 1552-5260
DOI - 10.1016/j.jalz.2015.06.786
Subject(s) - workforce , psychology , service (business) , dementia , session (web analytics) , job satisfaction , interview , nursing , medical education , public relations , medicine , business , social psychology , political science , law , disease , pathology , marketing , advertising
Health, Indianapolis, Indiana. The overall goal is to provide best practice care and, ultimately, to improve patient and caregiver outcomes. Methods: 16 Care Coordinator Assistants (CCAs) were recruited and trained in person-centered care, collaborative care, team building, the use of a mobile office, the administration of our assessment tools, the use of our electronic medical record system, and how to access available community resources. CCAs write case reports quarterly to share a case that represents a success story, a lesson learned, and/or demonstrates the impact of the intervention. These cases were qualitatively analyzed for patient-centered care themes. Results: 73 CCA cases were entered into the NVivo software and qualitative analysis was conducted. Six patientcentered care themes were identified: 1. patient familiarity/understanding; 2. patient interest/engagement encouraged; 3. flexibility and continuity of care; 4. caregiver support/engagement; 5. effective utilization/integration of training; and 6. teamwork. Most referenced themes were patient familiarity (91.8%), teamwork (67.1%), flexibility/continuity of care (61.6%). CCAs have made a mean number of 15.7 (SD1⁄415.6) visits, with most visits for coordination of care services, followed by home visits and phone visits to over 1200 patients. Conclusions: The CCA reports and our experience to date have demonstrated not only the importance of providing person-centered care but also the importance of patient engagement and relationship building, the support of hospital leadership, staff support and development and the measurement of program outcomes to the successful implementation of our program. Person-centered care interventions can be effectively implemented by well trained CCAs in the community to improve outcomes for both patients and their caregivers.