Long term care facilities have gained popularity nowadays in the health care department. The assignment will focus two long term care facilities one facility is from nursing facility, and the other one is the adult day care. One has the responsibility of managing and administering either of the two facilities. The new managers appointed needs to be oriented and familiarized on the management of the long term care facility. The assignment provides a description of the different multidisciplinary teams, and departments included in the facilities. It also provides those who are comprised in the target population of the various programs in the care facilities. The human resource and major staffing issues faced in the home nursing and adult day care. The assignment will also focus on the significance trends likely to affect the operation of the different programs in the long term care facilities and how to overcome them. Finally, the integration and cooperation forms in the long term care facilities are outlined in the assignment. The financing, management nature and quality issues affecting cooperation and integration in the facilities are also discussed in the assignment.
Multidisciplinary teams are very essential in nursing facility. The main objective of the multidisciplinary teams is to ensure that there is improved outcome on the patients’ health status. The multidisciplinary disciplinary teams involve the staffs in the nursing facility. There are different levels of multidisciplinary teams in the nursing facilities. The levels can be grouped as follows; nurses, technicians, anesthesiologists, and attending physicians (Medicaid, 2017). The teams work together through proper communication in different levels to ensure improved outcome of the patient. The various multidisciplinary teams should be trained to work collaboratively.
The main aim of the multidisciplinary teams is to ensure that there is improved outcome on the patient’s health status. The multidisciplinary disciplinary teams involve the staffs in the adult day care. Adult day care involves taking care of an individual in all round manner. That is nutritional, health, and the daily living needs. There are different teams involved in each activity in the adult day care facility. There are nutritionist, health specialists, fitness advisor, and living advisor. For health specialists, there are different levels of multidisciplinary levels can be grouped as follows; nurses, technicians, anesthesiologists, and attending physicians (Epstein, 2014). The teams work together through proper communication in different levels to ensure improved outcome of the patient. The various multidisciplinary teams should be trained to work collaboratively. The attending doctor performs regular check up on the individuals to find out if there are any signs of disease or peculiar body behavior. After the check up, the attending physician communicates the results to the other members of the team for them to find out the best remedy for the problem. Through proper communication, adult day care a long term care facility will achieve improvement of the individual health status.
The target population in the adult day care is mostly adults that is 18 years and above. In this facility they are various programs which are designed to provide services to different populations. The population is subdivided according to the suffering of the individuals. The sporting fitness program is designed to target the population fighting obesity (Epstein, 2014). The music program is focused to give hope to the population which is stressed. The walk day programs are used to give hope to those suffering and raise a foundation.
The target population in nursing facility is the overall individuals who visit the care centers. There are different programs which are destined to provide care to various people who visit the center. The programs in the nursing centers are distributed in various departments. The department of check up has screening programs which aim at ensuring that every individual with a certain health problem is reached out. The program seeks to reach out the population that suffers silently in the society. The department of medical follow up guidance has programs such as seminars. Then seminar programs seek to reach out the nursing population and advise them on how to follow up their medication. There are dietary programs. The target population of the program is the patients. The program aims at ensuring the patients meets the required diet to improve the health care of the patient.
Human Resource and Staffing Issues
According to the society caring for the sick or the elderly are perceived to be a blessing. However, after some time the good thing can disintegrate into a tough and difficult task. Below are some of the problems experienced when taking care of the sick or the elderly;
Lack of sleep:
Caregivers can have a hard time dealing with elderly as some of them suffer from sleep disorders. The sleep-cycle of the elderly can get mixed up which can disrupt the caregiver as he tries to manage the needs of everyone (Mueller, 2003).
Lack of privacy:
Everyone in the care giving facility needs their privacy and personal space. The staff and human resource in this kind of facilities might find it challenging in the managing of privacy especially when a patient suffers from a mental illness (Mueller, 2003). Mental illnesses such as dementia can cause a patient to barge into other people rooms without registering the events.
Overwhelming duties:
The staff in these institutions might be required to carry out tasks such as taking care of incontinence from the patients. Both urinary and fecal incontinence is a major cause of nursing home placement (Mueller, 2003). Other daycare deal-breakers include heavy lifting and patient's wandering behaviors.
Lone-soldier syndrome:
Care giving can be an enormous task and it's essential in the general wellness of the elderly and sick. Unfortunately, some of the individuals giving care do this alone for a long time and might fall into the "lone-soldier" mode without even realizing (Mueller, 2003). This is because the individual is used to helping people full time regardless of their emotional needs.
The significant trends in long-term care:
It's no secret that the entire industry of long-term care facilities is revolutionizing. Gone are the days when the LTC facilities were painted to be a place of loneliness and illnesses. Providers have shifted these facilities into resident-centered care models. Below are the major trends in long-term care and our plan of action to overcome them.
Change of culture:
The overall dull culture of long-term care facilities is changing rapidly. The process of changing the culture will require strong leadership throughout (Goldberg, 2004). The culture of any organization is a reflection of its leaders. The employees should be culture builders and not culture buzzers.
General wellnesses:
The wellness’s of the patients is the main priority of any long-term care facility. The overall standards of have improved in the last few years. The facilities should get qualified and experienced staff that will assist in meeting the emotional, spiritual, social and intellectual needs of the patients so as meet the demands of successful LTC facility (Goldberg, 2004).
Cohousing:
Cohousing is a form of collaborative housing that is mainly restricted to the elderly. The residents actively play a role in the operation and design of their neighborhood. It's a trend that promotes contact and individual privacy (Goldberg, 2004). Certain neighborhood ideas and design can be borrowed from this model when building a long-term care facility
Environment Design practices
Environment sustainability has not always been associated with LTC facility design. There has been a shift of attention in this area as more providers are incorporating the practical "green" practices in the institutions to develop an energy efficient community in ways that would contribute to the lives of the people (Goldberg, 2004). This includes the planting of a vegetable garden which can cut food costs and encourage the residents to involve themselves in sustainable programs.
Integration and Cooperation:
Long-term care has been there for many years, though there have been changes in the past decades. There have been changing individual facilities and other medical care facilities to make one big unit facility. Within the big unit facility, it is easy to administer long-term care services as it is easy to control (Pratt, 2010). With integration in the long-term care facilities, that is adult day care and nursing facility there has been increasing in cooperation as various corporate combine. Integration in the long-term care has also reduced the competition in it. This is due to the drastic increase of the users as long-term care facility is evolving daily.
Research shows that by the year 2030 the number of people using long-term care facilities will have increased by double figures and the mortality rate of elderly people reducing as well. This shows that by then, the elderly people will be living healthier and longer showing the impact of adult day care and nursing facility as long-term health care facilities. Financial changes have also been experienced due to shifting to prospective system of payment from the retrospective system of payment. This prospective system is efficient and cost-effective.
Cooperation seeks to combine efforts with other industries in the healthcare. The long-term care facilities ensure that every individual is in a position to find out the best mechanism for living stronger and health (Pratt, 2010). This is achieved through cooperation within the staffs in the facilities as well as the patients. Cooperation between the long-term care facilities can be seen in a scenario where a patient is referred by hospital to a certain clinical home where they provide further care to him or her. The nursing home will now take care of the patient. The same can also occur when a home health is unable to help a patient; they can refer him or her to an adult day care facility or nursing facility. In the referred facility, the client will receive living which is assisted in the facility. There are two types of integration in the adult day care and nursing facility. The first form of integration is horizontal integration.
Horizontal integration focuses on the care facilities in the same field. It mainly focuses on the facilities which provide services which are similar for the overall benefit. Horizontal integration focuses on delivering the best care services in a certain healthcare field. The other type of integration is vertical integration. Vertical integration focuses on two or more than two health care organizations which provide different types of health care services. They seek to integrate and work collaboratively to ensure that the needs of the patients are met and improve his or her health. Integration is however beneficial as it works to provide beneficial output to the patient. Integration also enables health care organizations to coordinate care provided to the patient, manage, plan and share, and keep record of the patient treatment data (Pratt, 2010). With integration, and cooperation there will be increased in the betterment of health care facilities; as well as future increase in demand for the health care services in the long-term care facilities.
Nature of Management:
The management of the adult day care and the nursing facility seeks to provide the best health care facilities to the patients. The decision on how the facilities should operate comes from the individual stakeholders on the organizations willing to integrate and cooperate. The managers in the respective health care organizations are familiarized with the objectives of the long-term care facilities (Pratt, 2010). They are also briefed on the history of the respective organizations in order to work within the ethics of the facility. The finances of the long-term facility care are generated by the patients and also through government projects. The patient may use their health insurance cards to cater for the bills in the care center as well as business cards. The government at times funds the long-term care facility with an aim of lowering mortality rate and attaining health goals. Integration and cooperation are at times affected by quality issues where patients are likely to receive quality care services in a certain long-term care facility compared to the other.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the assignment focuses on long-term care facilities. The long-term care facilities described in the assignment are adult day care and nursing facility. The assignment identifies the multidisciplinary teams in each of the long-term care facility. The target population of both adult day care and nursing facility are outlined in the assignment. The assignment also identifies the issues in human resources and staffing which affects the operation of the long-term care facility. The trends in the facilities are also outlined in the assignment. Finally, integration and cooperation among various health care organizations is outlined in the assignment. From the assignment, it is clear that long-term care facilities are essential for the improvement of patients’ health care.
References
Epstein, N. (2014). Multidisciplinary in-hospital teams improve patient outcomes: A review. Retrieved 28 November 2017, from
Goldberg, R., & Devine, J. (2004). Emerging Trends in Psychological Practice in Long-Term Care. Journal Of The American Geriatrics Society, 52(5), 838-839. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1532-5415.2004.52227.x
Mueller, C. (2003). Staffing Problems in Long-term Care: Let's do Something About it!. Journal Of Gerontological Nursing, 29(3), 3-4. http://dx.doi.org/10.3928/0098-9134-20030301-03
Nursing Facilities | Medicaid.gov. (2017). Medicaid.gov. Retrieved 28 November 2017, from https://www.medicaid.gov/medicaid/ltss/institutional/nursing/index.html
Pratt, J. R. (2010). Long-term care: Managing across the continuum. Jones & B
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