BACKGROUND/RATIONALE:
VA has a national goal to triple the proportion of long-term care (LTC) provided by home and community based services (HCBS) by 2013. Veterans requiring LTC can often be safely managed at home, which is preferred by most veterans and their caregivers. In our HSR&D team's previous study (IIR 02-228), interviews and focus groups with veterans, caregivers and VA staff described a referral process which may favor nursing home placement over HCBS. Findings indicated that providers are often perceived as lacking information about HCBS referral options and assuming nursing homes are the best place to care for chronically ill, frail elderly. Provider education about LTC referral, particularly HCBS, has been suggested as one effective method for increasing HCBS referrals.

OBJECTIVE(S):
Complete development of an online Long-Term Care Referral Tutorial for providers.

METHODS:
-Prototype Completion
-Tutorial Expert Review
-Provider Field Testing of Tutorial
-Employee Education System Involvement
-Tutorial Completion

FINDINGS/RESULTS:
The final LTC Referral Tutorial can be viewed on the Talaria website http://VALongTermCare.talariainc.com/default.aspx The Tutorial gives providers information on the range of LTC services and how those services can be used to meet patient needs. The Tutorial includes photos, descriptive information and typical patient descriptions for the full range of LTC services, as well as interactive LTC referral case scenarios with feedback text.

IMPACT:
The LTC Referral Tutorial is now complete and ready for evaluation. The online Tutorial provides the first critical step of developing an evidence-based content resource for changing LTC referral, and will be combined with other implementation interventions to promote the goal of increasing the proportion of HCBS referrals in VHA.

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External Links for this Project

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PUBLICATIONS:

Conference Presentations

1. Hedrick S, Guihan M. Geriatrics and Extended Care Referral Form. Paper presented at: American Geriatrics Society Annual Meeting; 2007 May 1; Seattle, WA. [view]

DRA: Aging, Older Veterans' Health and Care
DRE: none
Keywords: Education (provider), Long-term care
MeSH Terms: none