Dataset Information

Coordinating care for older adults in primary care settings: understanding the current context.

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND:It is well known that older adults are high users of the health care system. Older adults with chronic conditions receive care from multiple providers, across multiple settings, and this care is often unorganized and confusing. In 2005, Ontario established a model of inter-professional primary care (family health teams) with the aim of providing enhanced interdisciplinary primary care to patients. Primary care requires an in-depth understanding of the operations of primary care teams and their relationships with other community services. The aim of this study was to develop a deeper understanding of the current operations of two family health teams in Ontario, including their current processes for referrals, information sharing, and engagement of patients in decision-making. METHODS:Focus group and individual semi-structured interviews with health care providers were conducted. Purposeful sampling was used to ensure information was obtained from different professional perspectives. Interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim. Using NVivo 10, data were analyzed using line by line thematic analysis techniques. A cluster technique was then applied to group similar codes into themes. RESULTS:Three focus group interviews (involving 4-6 health care providers/focus group) and six individual interviews were conducted with health care providers from two primary care teams and surrounding community care organizations. Six key themes were identified: 1) challenges engaging older adults in decisions about their care; 2) who is responsible for coordinating the care? 3) fragmented information sharing between health care providers; 4) lack of standardized referral processes and follow-up; 5) identifying services in the community for older adults; and 6) caring for older adults in rural communities. CONCLUSIONS:The results of this study provide an in-depth understanding of the current context in which the primary care teams are currently operating. Improved primary care will require stronger processes of coordination, greater knowledge of and connections with other community services, and enhanced patient engagement processes. This information provides a helpful basis for implementing interventions in primary care.

SUBMITTER: Elliott J

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6081869 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Coordinating care for older adults in primary care settings: understanding the current context.

Elliott Jacobi J Stolee Paul P Boscart Veronique V Giangregorio Lora L Heckman George G

BMC family practice 20180807 1

<h4>Background</h4>It is well known that older adults are high users of the health care system. Older adults with chronic conditions receive care from multiple providers, across multiple settings, and this care is often unorganized and confusing. In 2005, Ontario established a model of inter-professional primary care (family health teams) with the aim of providing enhanced interdisciplinary primary care to patients. Primary care requires an in-depth understanding of the operations of primary car ...[more]

PMID: 30086707

Similar Datasets

Project description:IntroductionInitiating tobacco use in adolescence increases the risk of nicotine dependence and continued use into adulthood. Primary care visits provide opportunities for the assessment and treatment of tobacco use; however, little is known about prevalence and correlates of assessing smoking status and current use among adolescents in these settings.Aims and methodsUsing electronic health record data from the OCHIN network, we identified adolescents with greater than or equal to one primary care visit to a study clinic (n = 366 clinics from 15 US states) during January 1, 2016 to December 31, 2017. We estimated odds ratios of smoking assessment and current smoking status by patient covariates.ResultsOf 140 887 patients, 87.4% were assessed for smoking. Being Latino or Black (adjusted odds ratio = 1.22, 95% confidence interval: 1.13-1.32; adjusted odds ratio = 1.17, 95% confidence interval: 1.07-1.29, respectively, vs. non-Hispanic White), publicly insured, having more visits, and having an asthma diagnosis or other respiratory symptoms were associated with higher odds of assessment. Odds were lower if the patient was male and uninsured. Of those assessed, 1.6% identified as current smokers. Being older, having more visits, an asthma diagnosis, other respiratory symptoms, and lower household income was associated with higher odds of being a current smoker. Latinos and Blacks had lower odds than non-Hispanic Whites.ConclusionsAlthough some commonly reported tobacco-related disparities were not present, smoking assessment and current smoking status differed significantly by most patient demographics. Implementation of adolescent tobacco assessment protocols and the development of interventions to target subpopulations of adolescents with higher rates of smoking could mitigate disparate rates of assessment and smoking, respectively.ImplicationsClinical guidelines recommend screening adolescents for tobacco use in primary care settings. We found that most adolescents seen in US safety-net primary care clinics were assessed for smoking. We also found that smoking assessment and current smoking status differed significantly by most patient demographics. Implementing tobacco assessment protocols specific to adolescents could mitigate disparate rates of assessment and ensure accurate documentation of all forms of tobacco use, given the evolution of alternative tobacco products and poly use among adolescents. Interventions to target subpopulations of adolescents with higher smoking rates are needed to prevent the negative health effects of continued smoking.

Project description:Background Frailty is frequently found to be associated with increased healthcare utilisation in western countries, but little is known in Asian population. This study was conducted to investigate the association between frailty and healthcare utilisation in different care settings among community-dwelling older adults in Singapore. Methods Data from a population health survey among community-dwelling adults were linked with an administrative database to retrieve data of healthcare utilisation (including government primary care clinic visits, specialised outpatient clinic visits, emergency department visits, day surgery and hospitalisations) occurred during a six-month look-back period and six-month post-baseline respectively. Baseline frailty status was measured using the five-item FRAIL scale, which was categorised into three groups: robust (0), pre-frail (1–2), and frail (3–5). Negative binomial regression was applied to examine the association between frailty with respective healthcare utilisation (dependent variables), controlling for other confounding variables. Results In our sample of 701 older adults, 64.8% were of robust health, 27.7% were pre-frail, and 7.6% were frail. Compared to the robust group, frail individuals had a higher rate of specialised outpatient clinic visits (incidence rate ratio (IRR): 2.8, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.2–6.5), emergency department visits (IRR: 3.1, 95%CI: 1.1–8.1), day surgery attendances (IRR: 6.4, 95%CI: 1.3–30.9), and hospitalisations (IRR: 6.7, 95%CI: 2.1–21.1) in the six-month period prior to the baseline and in subsequent 6 months (IRR: 3.3, 95%CI: 1.6–7.1; 6.4, 2.4–17.2; 5.8, 1.3–25.8; 13.1, 4.9–35.0; respectively), controlling for covariates. Conclusions Frailty was positively associated with the number of specialised outpatient clinic visits, emergency department visits, day surgeries and hospitalisations occurred during 6?months prior to and after the baseline. As frailty is a potentially reversible health state with early screening and intervention, providing preventive activities that delay the onset or progression of frailty should have potential effect on delaying secondary and tertiary care utilisation.

Project description:BackgroundResidents of aged care services can experience safety incidents resulting in preventable serious harm. Accreditation is a commonly used strategy to improve the quality of care; however, narrative information within accreditation reports is not generally analysed as a source of safety information to inform learning. In Australia, the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission (ACQSC), the sector regulator, undertakes over 500 accreditation assessments of residential aged care services against national standards every year. From these assessments, the ACQSC generates detailed Site Audit Reports. In over one-third (37%) of Site Audit Reports, standards relating to Personal and Clinical Care (Standard 3) are not being met. The aim of this study was to identify the types of resident Safety Risks that relate to Personal and Clinical Care Standards not being met during accreditation or re-accreditation. These data could inform priority setting at policy, regulatory and service levels.MethodsAn analytical framework was developed based on the World Health Organization's International Classification for Patient Safety (ICPS) and other fields including Clinical Issue (the issue related to the incident impacting on the resident e.g., wound/skin or pain). Information relating to safety incidents in the Site Audit Reports was extracted and a content analysis undertaken using the analytical framework. Clinical Issue and the ICPS-based classification were combined to describe a clinically intuitive category ("Safety Risks") to describe ways in which residents could experience unsafe care e.g., diagnosis/assessment of pain. The resulting data were descriptively analysed.ResultsThe analysis included 65 Site Audit Reports that were undertaken between September 2020 - March 2021. There were 2,267 incidents classified into 274 types of resident Safety Risks. The twelve most frequently occurring Safety Risks account for only 32.3% of all incidents. Relatively frequently occurring Safety Risks were organisation management of infection control; diagnosis/assessment of pain, restraint, resident behaviours, falls; and multiple stages of wounds/skin management e.g., diagnosis/assessment, documentation, treatment, and deterioration.ConclusionThe analysis has shown that accreditation reports contain valuable data that may inform prioritisation of resident Safety Risks in the Australian residential aged care sector.A large number of low frequency resident Safety Risks were detected in the accreditation reports. To address these, organisations may use implementation science approaches to facilitate evidence-based strategies to improve the quality of care delivered to residents. Improving the aged care workforces' clinical skills base may address some of the Safety Risks associated with diagnosis/assessment and wound management.

Dataset Information

Coordinating care for older adults in primary care settings: understanding the current context.

Publications

Coordinating care for older adults in primary care settings: understanding the current context.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets