Long-Term Care Counselor: An Electronic Decision-Support Tool

2004 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 139-144 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan Polniaszek ◽  
Christopher Klinger

With the American population aging at a steady pace, the need to help individuals, families, and aging/health care professionals in making often-difficult long-term care decisions is increasing. Finding accurate, impartial information is also critically important, especially information that is personalized to the individual rather than for the general public. The Long-Term Care Counselor (LTCC) is a free and confidential, web-based, decision-support tool developed by The National Council on the Aging (NCOA) to meet this particular need. It is part of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Service’s (CMS) long-term care information initiative and is found via the official Medicare website at http://www.medicare.gov/longtermcare/static/ltccounselor.asp. The LTCC helps individuals, caregivers, and professionals to find information relevant to particular circumstances based on the age, health, level of activity, finances, or personal preferences of the person.

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aaron Jones ◽  
Chi-Ling Joanna Sinn

Equitable access to care is a fundamental principle of Canada’s healthcare system. In Ontario, the absence of a provincial standard to support consistent decision making around urgent admissions to long-term care homes has led to variation in practice across the province. A working group was established in 2014 to develop an evidence-informed decision support tool to promote consistency in care planning regarding urgent admissions to long-term care homes. The resulting CRISIS algorithm demonstrates good prognostic ability, with the proportion of patients urgently admitted to a long-term care home within 90 days ranging from 2.4% in the lowest risk level to 39.9% in the highest risk level. The implementation of the algorithm will improve equity in access to long-term care homes in Ontario.


2017 ◽  
Vol 48 (1) ◽  
pp. 128-147 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mårten Lagergren ◽  
Noriko Kurube ◽  
Yasuhiko Saito

Population aging is expected to increase long-term care (LTC) costs in both Japan and Sweden. This study projected LTC costs for 2010 through 2040 for different assumptions of population change, LTC need by age group and gender, and LTC provided per level of need and cost in Japan and Sweden. Population data were taken from the official national forecasts. Needs projections were based on epidemiological data from the Nihon University Japanese Longitudinal Study of Aging and the Swedish Survey of Living Conditions. Data on LTC provision by need and cost were taken from nine Japanese municipalities collected by assessments in the LTC insurance system and from surveys in eight Swedish municipalities. Total initial costs were calibrated to official national figures. Two projections based on two different scenarios were made for each country from 2010 to 2040. The first scenario assumed a constant level of need for LTC by age group and gender, and the other assumed a continuation of the present LTC need trends until 2025. For Japan, this resulted in a projected cost increase of 93% for the one and 80% for the other; for Sweden it was 52% and 24%, respectively. The results reflected differences in population aging and health development.


Author(s):  
John Giles ◽  
Elena Glinskaya ◽  
Yaohui Zhao ◽  
Xinxin Chen ◽  
Yuqing Hu

2018 ◽  

This convenient flip chart provides pediatric health care professionals with point-of-care guidance on the assessment, prevention, and treatment of childhood infectious diseases. https://shop.aap.org/red-book-pediatric-infectious-diseases-clinical-decision-support-chart/


Author(s):  
Peter P. Yuen

This chapter presents key concepts of economics relevant to the financing and delivery of long term care services. It first examines the magnitude of population aging in developed economies, and the associated implications for long term care. Key economic concepts relating to the demand, supply and financing of long term care services are then discussed. Policies, practices and major models of financing of long term care are further explored followed by a presentation of the conceptual framework for reform. It concludes that in view of the magnitude of the problem, incremental changes in the existing systems are unlikely to be adequate. A clear understanding of the economic concepts to underpin major transformation of existing systems and policies that do not align with populations trends is urgently needed.


2019 ◽  
Vol 34 (10) ◽  
pp. 792-799 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pablo Villalobos Dintrans

Abstract Population aging is driving a process of increase in long-term care needs in Chile and many countries around the world. In this context, this article asks about the consequences of this increase in informal caregivers, emphasizing the inequity issues arising from these changes. Using the CASEN 2017 survey, caregivers are identified and matched to people with long-term care needs. Results show that most caregivers are women, and a large fraction of them are also elderly; this is similar to what has been found previously in developed countries. Caregivers have fewer opportunities than non-caregivers, which translates into lower income-generating ability and higher poverty. The nature of these tasks creates a vicious cycle in which people get trapped with increasing needs and fewer resources to meet them. Important differences arise between caregivers and the rest of the population. Even more concerning is that these disparities are avoidable to some extent, adding an equity dimension to the problem. This emphasizes the need for the generation of policies that will support caregivers and meet their needs.


Weed Science ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 67 (4) ◽  
pp. 463-473
Author(s):  
Douglas Bessette ◽  
Robyn Wilson ◽  
Christian Beaudrie ◽  
Clayton Schroeder

AbstractWeeds remain the most commonly cited concern of organic farmers. Without the benefit of synthetic herbicides, organic farmers must rely on a host of ecological weed management (EWM) practices to control weeds. Despite EWM’s ability to improve soil quality, the perceived rate of integrated EWM strategy adoption remains low. This low adoption is likely a result of the complexity in designing and evaluating EWM strategies, the tendency for outreach to focus on the risks of EWM strategies rather than their benefits, and a lack of quantitative measures linking the performance of EWM strategies to farmers’ on-farm objectives and practices. Here we report on the development and deployment of an easy-to-use online decision support tool (DST) that aids organic farmers in identifying their on-farm objectives, characterizing the performance of their practices, and evaluating EWM strategies recommended by an expert advisory panel. Informed by the principles of structured decision making, the DST uses multiple choice tasks to help farmers evaluate the short- and long-term trade-offs of EWM strategies, while also focusing their attention on their most important objectives. We then invited organic farmers across the United States, in particular those whose email addresses were registered on the USDA’s Organic Research Integrity Database, to engage the DST online. Results show considerable movement in participants’ (n = 45) preferences from practices focused on reducing weeding costs and labor in the short term to EWM strategies focused on improving soil quality in the long term. Indeed, nearly half of those farmers (48%) who initially ranked a strategy composed of their current practices highest ultimately preferred a better-performing EWM strategy focused on eliminating the weed seedbank over 5 yr.


Trials ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Anja Rieckert ◽  
Annette Becker ◽  
Norbert Donner-Banzhof ◽  
Annika Viniol ◽  
Bettina Bücker ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) are increasingly being prescribed, although long-term use is associated with multiple side effects. Therefore, an electronic decision support tool with the aim of reducing the long-term use of PPIs in a shared decision-making process between general practitioners (GPs) and their patients has been developed. The developed tool is a module that can be added to the so-called arriba decision support tool, which is already used by GPs in Germany in routine care. In this large-scale cluster-randomized controlled trial we evaluate the effectiveness of this arriba-PPI tool. Methods The arriba-PPI tool is an electronic decision support system that supports shared decision-making and evidence-based decisions around the long-term use of PPIs at the point of care. The tool will be evaluated in a cluster-randomized controlled trial involving 210 GP practices and 3150 patients in Germany. GP practices will be asked to recruit 20 patients aged ≥ 18 years regularly taking PPIs for ≥ 6 months. After completion of patient recruitment, each GP practice with enrolled patients will be cluster-randomized. Intervention GP practices will get access to the software arriba-PPI, whereas control GPs will treat their patients as usual. After an observation period of six months, GP practices will be compared regarding the reduction of cumulated defined daily doses of PPI prescriptions per patient. Discussion Our principal hypothesis is that the application of the arriba-PPI tool can reduce PPI prescribing in primary care by at least 15% compared to conventional strategies used by GPs. A positive result implies the implementation of the arriba-PPI tool in routine care. Trial registration German Clinical Trials Register, DRKS00016364. Registered on 31 January 2019.


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