Implementing innovative models of dementia care: The Healthy Aging Brain Center.

BACKGROUND: Recent randomized controlled trials have demonstrated the effectiveness of the collaborative dementia care model targeting both the patients suffering from dementia and their informal caregivers. OBJECTIVE: To implement a sustainable collaborative dementia care program in a public health care system in Indianapolis. METHODS: We used the framework of Complex Adaptive System and the tool of the Reflective Adaptive Process to translate the results of the dementia care trial into the Healthy Aging Brain Center (HABC). RESULTS: Within its first year of operation, the HABC delivered 528 visits to serve 208 patients and 176 informal caregivers. The mean age of HABC patients was 73.8 (standard deviation, SD 9.5), 40% were African-Americans, 42% had less than high school education, 14% had normal cognitive status, 39% received a diagnosis of mild cognitive impairment, and 46% were diagnosed with dementia. Within 12 months of the initial HABC visit, 28% of patients had at least one visit to an emergency room (ER) and 14% were hospitalized with a mean length of stay of five days. The rate of a one-week ER revisit was 14% and the 30-day rehospitalization rate was 11%. Only 5% of HABC patients received an order for neuroleptics and only 16% had simultaneous orders for both definite anticholinergic and anti-dementia drugs. CONCLUSION: The tools of 'implementation science' can be utilized to translate a health care delivery model developed in the research laboratory to a practical, operational, health care delivery program.

Implementing dementia care models in primary care settings: The Aging Brain Care Medical Home.

OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this article is to describe our experience in implementing a primary care-based dementia and depression care program focused on providing collaborative care for dementia and late-life depression. METHODS: Capitalizing on the substantial interest in the US on the patient-centered medical home concept, the Aging Brain Care Medical Home targets older adults with dementia and/or late-life depression in the primary care setting. We describe a structured set of activities that laid the foundation for a new partnership with the primary care practice and the lessons learned in implementing this new care model. We also provide a description of the core components of this innovative memory care program. RESULTS: Findings from three recent randomized clinical trials provided the rationale and basic components for implementing the new memory care program. We used the reflective adaptive process as a relationship building framework that recognizes primary care practices as complex adaptive systems. This framework allows for local adaptation of the protocols and procedures developed in the clinical trials. Tailored care for individual patients is facilitated through a care manager working in collaboration with a primary care physician and supported by specialists in a memory care clinic as well as by information technology resources. CONCLUSIONS: We have successfully overcome many system-level barriers in implementing a collaborative care program for dementia and depression in primary care. Spontaneous adoption of new models of care is unlikely without specific attention to the complexities and resource constraints of health care systems.

Selecting a change and evaluating its impact on the performance of a complex adaptive health care delivery system.

Complexity science suggests that our current health care delivery system acts as a complex adaptive system (CAS). Such systems represent a dynamic and flexible network of individuals who can coevolve with their ever changing environment. The CAS performance fluctuates and its members' interactions continuously change over time in response to the stress generated by its surrounding environment. This paper will review the challenges of intervening and introducing a planned change into a complex adaptive health care delivery system. We explore the role of the "reflective adaptive process" in developing delivery interventions and suggest different evaluation methodologies to study the impact of such interventions on the performance of the entire system. We finally describe the implementation of a new program, the Aging Brain Care Medical Home as a case study of our proposed evaluation process.

House calls for seniors: building and sustaining a model of care for homebound seniors.

Homebound seniors suffer from high levels of functional impairment and are high-cost users of acute medical services. This article describes a 7-year experience in building and sustaining a physician home visit program. The House Calls for Seniors program was established in 1999. The team includes a geriatrician, geriatrics nurse practitioner, and social worker. The program hosts trainees from multiple disciplines. The team provides care to 245 patients annually. In 2006, the healthcare system (62%), provider billing (36%), and philanthropy (2%) financed the annual program budget of $355,390. Over 7 years, the team has enrolled 468 older adults; the mean age was 80, 78% were women, and 64% were African American. One-third lived alone, and 39% were receiving Medicaid. Reflecting the disability of this cohort, 98% had impairment in at least one instrumental activity of daily living (mean 5.2), 71% had impairment in at least one activity of daily living (mean 2.6), 53% had a Mini-Mental State Examination score of 23 or less, 43% were receiving services from a home care agency, and 69% had at least one new geriatric syndrome diagnosed by the program. In the year after intake into the program, patients had an average of nine home visits; 21% were hospitalized, and 59% were seen in the emergency department. Consistent with the program goals, primary care, specialty care, and emergency department visits declined in the year after enrollment, whereas access and quality-of-care targets improved. An academic physician house calls program in partnership with a healthcare system can improve access to care for homebound frail older adults, improve quality of care and patient satisfaction, and provide a positive learning experience for trainees.