Inter- and Intrastate Variation of Mental Health Requirements for Assisted Living in Seven States

Little is known about states’ approaches to regulating mental health (MH) services in assisted living (AL) settings. Yet, one in nine AL residents are diagnosed with serious mental illness (Hua et al, 2020). This study describes the MH regulatory requirements in AL regulations within Arkansas, Louisiana, New Jersey, New York, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, and Texas. Using health services regulatory analysis (Smith et al, 2021), we reviewed 2018 regulations for the 45 identified AL licenses within these states sourced from Nexis Uni. We summarize 16 MH requirements related to admission, care transitions, resident assessment, third-party services access, and staff training. Each state explicitly addressed at least one of the identified MH requirements, though few states have consistency across all AL types within a state. The most commonly addressed requirements related to admission limitations, assessment, and transfer to psychiatric units. Understanding these requirements promotes a holistic approach to practices that meet residents' needs.

Fall-Related Injury in Older Adult Home Care Recipients: A Descriptive Population Study

Canada is experiencing a growing aging population leading to an increase in the number of individuals receiving home care. More needs to be known about home care clients who experience fall-related injuries. The purpose of this study was to describe the characteristics of Ontario home care recipients (65 and older) who experienced fall-related injury, and the characteristics of those injuries. We conducted a population-based descriptive study using secondary data from the IC/ES data repository for the period of 2010-2014. Person-level characteristics were extracted from the Resident Assessment Instrument - Home Care and injury characteristics from ICD-10 CA codes for falls (W00-W19) in combination with injuries (S00-S99 or T00-T14), available from the NACRS database. Descriptive statistics and rates were calculated using R. Results show the population (N= 88,731) was primarily female (67.0%), the largest age group was 85-89 years old (25.5%) and hypertension was the most prevalent (83.0%) chronic condition. Clinical Assessment Protocols (CAPs) indicated need for support in management of IADLs (75.4%), falls (72.3%) and pain (70.3%). Most patients (55.8%) used nine or more medications. In 90 days prior to home care assessment, 39.6% experienced no falls, 32.4% fell once, and 26.1% fell two or more times. Injuries primarily took place within the home (38.2%). Factures were the predominant injury type (40.8%), followed by superficial injuries (19.7%). These findings create a foundation for fall-related injury prevention in home care and further research on risk identification, the efficacy of CAPs, and home environment adjustments.

A Newly Identified Impairment in Both Vision and Hearing Increases the Risk of Deterioration in Both Communication and Cognitive Performance

Vision and hearing impairments are highly prevalent in adults 65 years of age and older. There is a need to understand their association with multiple health-related outcomes. We analyzed data from the Resident Assessment Instrument for Home Care (RAI-HC). Home care clients were followed for up to 5 years and categorized into seven unique cohorts based on whether or not they developed new vision and/or hearing impairments. An absolute standardized difference (stdiff) of at least 0.2 was considered statistically meaningful. Most clients (at least 60%) were female and 34.9 per cent developed a new sensory impairment. Those with a new concurrent vison and hearing impairment were more likely than those with no sensory impairments to experience a deterioration in receptive communication (stdiff = 0.68) and in cognitive performance (stdiff = 0.49). After multivariate adjustment, they had a twofold increased odds (adjusted odds ratio [OR] = 2.1; 95% confidence interval [CI]:1,87, 2.35) of deterioration in cognitive performance. Changes in sensory functioning are common and have important effects on multiple health-related outcomes.

An Analysis of Gender Bias in Plastic Surgery Resident Assessment

ABSTRACT Background Previous studies have shown men and women attending physicians rate or provide operating room (OR) autonomy differently to men and women residents, with men attendings providing higher ratings and more OR autonomy to men residents. Particularly with the advent of competency-based training in plastic surgery, differential advancement of trainees influenced by gender bias could have detrimental effects on resident advancement and time to graduation. Objective We determined if plastic surgery residents are assessed differently according to gender. Methods Three institutions' Operative Entrustability Assessment (OEA) data were abstracted from inception through November 2018 from MileMarker, a web-based program that stores trainee operative skill assessments of CPT-coded procedures. Ratings are based on a 5-point scale. Linear regression with postgraduate year adjustment was applied to all completed OEAs to compare men and women attendings' assessments of men and women residents. Results We included 8377 OEAs completed on 64 unique residents (25% women) by 51 unique attendings (29% women): men attendings completed 83% (n = 6972; 5859 assessments of men residents; 1113 of women residents) and women attendings completed 17% (n = 1405; 1025 assessments of men residents; 380 of women residents). Adjusted analysis showed men attendings rated women residents lower than men residents (P < .001); scores by women attendings demonstrated no significant difference (P = .067). Conclusions Our dataset including 4.5 years of data from 3 training programs showed men attendings scored women plastic surgery residents lower than their men counterparts.

Factors associated with daily opioid use among aged home care clients: a cross-sectional analysis of Resident Assessment Instrument data

Purpose To examine which client characteristics and other factors, including possible adverse effects, identified in the Resident Assessment Instrument—Home Care (RAI-HC) are associated with daily opioid use among aged home care clients. Methods The study sample comprised 2584 home care clients aged ≥ 65 years, of which 282 persons used opioids daily. Clients using opioids less than once daily were excluded. The cross-sectional data were gathered from each client’s first assessment with the RAI-HC during 2014. Multivariable logistic regression was used to study associations of daily opioid use with the clients’ characteristics and symptoms. Results Cognitive impairment was associated with less frequent opioid use after adjusting for pain-related diseases, disabilities and depressive symptoms (OR 0.43, 95% CI 0.32–0.58). The association was not explained by the estimated severity of pain. Osteoporosis, cancer within previous 5 years and greater disabilities in Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (IADL) were associated with daily opioid use regardless of the estimated severity of pain. Depressive symptoms and Parkinson’s disease were associated with daily opioid use only among clients with cognitive impairment, and disabilities in Activities of Daily Living, cancer, arthritis, fractures and pressure ulcers only among clients without cognitive impairment. Constipation was the only adverse effect associated with daily opioid use. Conclusion The pain of home care clients with cognitive impairment may not be treated optimally, whereas there might be prolonged opioid use without a sufficient evaluation of current pain among clients with osteoporosis, cancer within previous 5 years and disabilities in IADLs.

Institutional Issues

Residents with intact decision-making capacity who wish to hasten death by VSED while living in institutional long-term care (LTC) settings may encounter barriers to enacting this choice. LTC facility administrators and clinical staff must balance concerns about resident safety and moral objections to hastened death with support for resident rights and self-determination. Achieving this balance involves careful resident assessment and interdisciplinary care planning to identify and mitigate causes of suffering where possible, along with staff training regarding VSED and rigorous documentation of the care plan and interventions. Involvement of hospice may help to: (1) clarify resident goals; (2) ensure alignment between these goals and the care plan; and (3) support physical, psychosocial, and spiritual care before and during VSED. Resident-centered care planning is facilitated by using a checklist to ensure that all major issues are addressed in these complex LTC situations.

Assessment of triage accuracy by Nurses, and delay care of acute myocardial infarction patients admitted to Emergency Department: retrospective analysis from Shifa International Hospital, Pakistan

Background: Coronary vascular disease (CVD) is the premier cause of fatality in the world. In Pakistan, 30 to 40% of all deaths occur due to CVD. The emergency department triage is carried out to prioritize the care of critical patients. Errors during triage may lead to mortality and morbidity of the patient. The current study's objective is to determine the triage process of acute myocardial infarction patients and its associated accuracy and delays during the acute myocardial infarction process of care in the emergency department. Methods: In this descriptive study, data were collected retrospectively from Shifa International Hospital. The consent was taken from participating Registered nurses (RNs) who were involved in the triage process. Nurses with experience of less than 1 year in the emergency department were not part of the study, while only those patients with symptoms indicative of Acute Myocardial Infarction and age of 21 years or older were included in the current study. EMR system was used on a daily basis as a method to capture data for the study. The actual clock time in minutes from arrival until triage and obtain ECG as greater than 10 minutes was identified as a delay. Results: The 8 R.N. participated in the current study with a mean age and experience of 28.11 years and 4.77 years. The patients' age was 22-74 years, which consist of 58.9% male and 41.1% female. Out of 224 patients, 20.53% of patients were smokers, 39.3% were diabetic, 44.6% were CVD, and 78.5% were reported for chest pain. Delay care such as the mean triage and ECG time recorded was 6.75, and 7.30 min, the mean E.R. physician and Cardiology resident assessment was 11 min and 25.19 min, respectively, which were significantly found according to the recommended guidelines of AHA. The triage accuracy in the current study was recorded as 80.35%. Conclusion: In Pakistan, no proper triage system is developed, and no time limits and guidelines are defined for the completion of the triage process. In the current study, the triage level designations, ECG delay, E.R. and cardiology resident assessment delay were found insignificant, and triage designation was found inaccurate with 19.6% of patients, which lead to delay the re-perfusion therapy. In patients with AMI symptoms, triage accuracy and quick ECG helps E.R. physician assessment to take a quick better decision for cardiac care. It helps patients to get re-perfusion therapy on time for acute myocardial infarction.

Selecting home care quality indicators based on the Resident Assessment Instrument-Home Care (RAI-HC) for Switzerland: A public health and healthcare providers' perspective

Background Despite an increasing importance of home care, quality assurance in this healthcare sector in Switzerland is hardly established. In 2010, Swiss home care quality indicators (QIs) based on the Resident Assessment Instrument-Home Care (RAI-HC) were developed. However, these QIs have not been revised since, although internationally new RAI-HC QIs have emerged. The objective of this study was to assess the appropriateness of RAI-HC QIs to measure quality of home care in Switzerland from a public health and healthcare providers’ perspective. Methods First, the appropriateness of RAI-HC QIs, identified in a recent systematic review, was assessed by a multidisciplinary expert panel based on the RAND/UCLA Appropriateness Method taking into account indicators’ public health relevance, potential of influence, and comprehensibility. Second, the QIs selected by the experts were afterwards rated regarding their relevance, potential of influence, and practicability from a healthcare providers’ perspective in focus groups with home care nurses based on the Nominal-Group-Technique. Data were analyzed using median scores and the Disagreement Index. Results 18 of 43 RAI-HC QIs were rated appropriate by the experts from a public health perspective. The 18 QIs cover clinical, psychosocial, functional and service use aspects. Seven of the 18 QIs were subsequently rated appropriate by home care nurses from a healthcare providers’ perspective. The focus of these QIs is narrow, because three of seven QIs are pain-related. From both perspectives, the majority of RAI-HC QIs were rated inappropriate because of insufficient potential of influence, with healthcare providers rating them more critically. Conclusions The study shows that the appropriateness of RAI-HC QIs differs according to the stakeholder perspective and the intended use of QIs. The findings of this study can guide policy-makers and home care organizations on selecting QIs and to critically reflect on their appropriate use.