Standardized care plans for home care

Standardized Care Plans reflect the expected, accepted, normal nursing care and outcome of a patient with a specific diagnosis, problem, or condition. The patient's progress can therefore be evaluated against the expected outcome.     

From managed care to cooperative care

The difficulties manifested between managed care and its practitioners are formidable but not inevitable. A change in the perception of practitioners toward managed care will need a concerted effort on the part of both the provider and the industry, realizing there is more to gain by working together. The author reports two examples of cooperative care. These did not happen on their own. Rather, perceptions were changed in the only way perceptions are really changed: through results. This article is optimistic that, by persons of vision on both sides, there can be a move from managed to cooperative care.     

Continuity of care. Balancing care of elders between health care settings

Continuing care planning and balancing care of elders are crucial components of health care today. The most sweeping change that has come with the advent of prospective pricing for the acute care setting is in the financing of health care for the aged and disabled. Prospective pricing, which uses the diagnosis-related group system, is the method chosen by federal agencies to restrain Medicare costs. For almost two decades, the hospital has been the reservoir for the impaired elderly who could not be returned home or to the community without support services. The system now encourages shortened hospital stays. Continuing care planning is the key to balancing the care of the elder through the process of discharge planning. We must assure patients and families that their needs will be met in the community when the patient is discharged. Balancing care of elders between health care settings through discharge planning is identified in three simple words: A Complex Process. As health care professionals, we must be ready to accept this challenge.     

Association between rehabilitation care practices and care quality in long-term care facilities

This article analyzes the association between rehabilitation care practices and quality outcomes in Finland and represents unit-level (n = 256) associations between rehabilitation nursing and quality outcomes. Units classified as units providing a high frequency of rehabilitation care practices had better outcomes in 2 of 5 quality outcomes.