|
Over the last few years, sweeping changes have impacted the delivery of long term care services throughout our health care ministry. Driven by the aging of the Baby Boomers and other demographic and market forces, these trends are evidenced by an altering of consumer preference in favor of more community and home-based services. CHE's Continuing Care Environmental Scan, prepared in 2003, clearly signalled these changes, as well as significant opportunities for enhancing care of those who are functionally frail. During this same time period, governmental reimbursement for institutionally-based continuing care has continued to diminish. Questions around future capital investment, continuing care program emphasis, the need for enhanced case management services and effective information systems fueled this discussion within our health system. Our Sponsors, concerned about the growing needs for continuing care services and cognizant of the operational challenges facing our facilities, challenged us to re-commit to the long term care ministry. Together with the explosive growth of "alternative" community and home-based services, these issues led the CHE Mission and Ministry Committee in 2004 to urge the development of a new CHE vision for Continuing Care. This new vision called for commitment to continuing care services by all within CHE and the incorporation of continuing care strategies as part of each RHC's strategic plan, to ensure that continuing care services are positioned as a core ministry of CHE and integrated into the "mainstream". A three-phased approach was utilized to engage key stakeholders across CHE in defining the new vision for the year 2017 and in identifying how each continuing care service line will evolve over the next 10 years. With the input of caregivers throughout the System, a Continuing Care Mission Synergy Initiative Charter was introduced in 2005. All CHE providers were asked to take a careful look at their current care delivery models and where they will need to be in the year 2017. Technological breakthroughs such as remote monitoring, the shift away from acute in-patient care, and the dramatic growth in outpatient, community and home-based options are just a few of the trends that are revolutionizing care delivery. Our analysis enabled us to reach several system-wide conclusions. CHE leadership is now committed to focus its planning and resources in ways that prepare the health system as a whole and all RHCs individually, to be attentive and responsive to forces impacting Continuing Care Services into the year 2017. Resources are now being prioritized to support continuing care programs and services that are home and community-based, such as home care. There will be additional support for the growth of institutional continuing care services that are not necessarily dependent on governmental payment as the primary source of reimbursement. Continuing care is an arena of burgeoning innovation and creativity. Our ministries must address the shifting demographics over the next 10 years that will bring a wave of Baby Boomers into their programs and services. Care management will be a key to the success of care delivery in the future integrating acute and continuing care services as part of a seamless whole. CHE facilities are encouraged to be on the cutting edge of development of creative care management programs that link the continuum of services, from acute to skilled nursing facilities to assisted living or home and community-based services, so that continuity of care and seamless information flow are integral to the patient/client experience throughout the process. At all points along the continuum, standardized approaches to the delivery of patient care should be developed, relying on best practices that already exist within CHE or adopting the most current evidence-based models. Pilot projects are being launched testing new concepts and ideas, such as home monitoring for home care services. CHE already has many outstanding, new and creative continuing care initiatives in the planning stages or already in place. One such example is Catholic Health System's planned "reinvention" of a former acute care hospital campus in Lackawanna, NY into a mixed-use community for housing, health care, retail, and recreational space for seniors. Known as the Our Lady of Victory Renaissance Senior Neighborhood Project, the revitalized campus will include 79 subsidized apartments for seniors (92% of which are already rented!); a newly constructed, 74-bed skilled nursing facility; a medical lab, a bank, and a museum (commemorating the history of the former hospital). Plans also call for the development of a walking trail, a park, a community center, and other amenities such as a café, beauty salon, chapel, cinema, atrium, library and gift shop. I am supremely confident in our collective abilities to continue to grow and meet the current and future health and social needs of our nation's burgeoning senior population. Our growing expertise in the continuing care field—and our enhanced ability as a health system to learn from each other—strongly position Catholic Health East facilities to be transforming, healing presences in the communities we serve.
Sincerely yours,
|
|
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Catholic Health East | About Us | Services | Employment | Regional Health Systems | Outreach | Publications | Contact Us | For CHE Members
Catholic Health East, 3805 West Chester Pike, Suite 100 |
| • | About Us |
| • | Mission and Values |
| • | History |
| • | Holy Memory, Faithful Action |
| • | Sponsorship Heritage |
| • | President's Welcome |
| • | Our Values in Practice |