Collaborative effort aims to improve health care for elderly

CNY Business Journal (1996+), May 11, 2007 by Acton, Ryann

SYRACUSE - It's common for the elderly to utilize hospital, nursing-home, and home-care services before returning to an independent lifestyle at-home.

The elderly and their families typically handle transitions between health-care facilities without assistance from care providers. Important information about treatment can be lost in translation, resulting in patients having to return to the hospital or doctor.

The Community Health Foundation of Western & Central New York developed the Quality Improvement Collaborative to reduce errors when patients transition between health-care facilities, says Christine Klotz, program adviser with the Community Health Foundation of Western & Central New York.

The Buffalo-based foundation, founded in 2003, provides funding for educational institutions, government agencies, and nonprofits to develop projects that improve health care in Western and Central New York.

The foundation focuses its Central New York efforts in Cayuga, Cortland, Madison, Oneida, Onondaga, Oswego, and Tompkins Counties. Its 300-square-foot Central New York office is located at 126 N. Salina St. in Syracuse, which employs one. The foundation employs six at its Buffalo office.

The collaborative is important because no one entity is usually responsible for a patient's transition to another healthcare facility or to their home, Klotz says. It is easy for patients and their families to getconfused about medications and treatment during transitions. Errors and illness can result, forcing the patient back into a health-care facility, Klotz explains.

"Improving transitions does help to make [it] an economic way of care," Klotz says.

Managed transitions decrease the likelihood of elderly patients returning to a health-care facility because they are educated on what medications to take and which symptoms necessitate a trip back to the hospital or doctor.

The Community Health Foundation of Western & Central New York selected 32 health-care organizations to participate in the Quality Improvement Collaborative. The foundation will give a $30,000 grant to each organization over the course of 18 months - the collaborative's lifespan - to develop and implement a model to assist elderly patients with transitions. Organizations enacted the initiative in April, and it will continue until October 2008.

Funding for the Quality Improvement Collaborative comes from the collaborative's endowment, which is nearly $100 million, Klotz says. Univera Healthcare funded the foundation's endowment when Excellus BlueCross BlueShield acquired the nonprofit insurance company. A portion of Univera's assets were not included in the acquisition deal and were endowed into the foundation, Klotz explains.

The foundation's budget is $586,800, Klotz says. Twenty people serve on the foundation's board of trustees.

In the Central New York area, six health-care organizations will participate in the collaborative, including Crouse Hospital; Franciscan Management Services, Inc.; Hospicare and Palliative Care Services of Tompkins County, Inc.; Oncology-Hematology of Ithaca Medical Group; Beechtree Care Center; and Tompkins County Adult and Long Term Care Services.

In Syracuse, Crouse Hospital and Franciscan Management Services are collaborating to develop a transition coach responsible for elderly patients transitioning from Crouse to home care provided by Franciscan Management Services.

Franciscan Management Services at 7246 Janus Park Drive in the town of Clay provides home-care services and medical equipment to patients released from the hospital. Some services include Physical and occupational therapy, wound care, and respiratory therapy.

Crouse Hospital is recruiting a fulltime transition coach who will manage a patient's switch from Crouse to home care provided by Franciscan Management Services, says Christina Pavetto Bond, director of senior-centered care services at Crouse. The transition coach will keep track of the patient's prescriptions and medical treatments to reduce errors when they move on to home care.

Crouse expects to hire the transition coach by June. Pavetto Bond anticipates transition-management services to be available to elderly patients this summer. She does not anticipate incurring extra costs for patients utilizing the service.

Crouse will use the foundation's funds over the next 18 months to train hospital employees about managing transitions. Three employees from Crouse, including the future transition coach, are designated to work on developing and implementing a transition-care model.

In Ithaca, Hospicare and Palliative Care Services is working with Oncology-Hematology of Ithaca Medical Group to help cancer patients move from cancer treatment to hospice care.

Hospicare and Palliative Care Services provides hospice care at a patient's home, adult homes, or at the Hospicare's facility at 172 E. King Road in Ithaca. The Oncology-Hematology of Ithaca Medical Group, at 1301 Trumansburg Road in Ithaca, provides chemotherapy treatment to cancer patients.