"Geriatric Team Health Care Pathways": An Organizational Innovation to Enhance Care Pathways of Long-Term Care Facilities' Residents in the French Region of Occitania.

Born out of the COVID crisis, an innovative disposal called "Geriatric Team Healthcare Pathways" (GTHPs) has been implemented in the Occitania area in the south of France. GTHPs can be considered as geriatric "hotlines" providing expertise and knowledge to long-term care facility (LTCF) professionals, pursuing the general objective to promote a simplified, direct, and fair access to geriatric care for residents. This article highlights the history of their creation and their current use cases and operating modes for the year 2023, which includes a "quality of care approach" on good practices at a regional level (820 LTCFs), on topics such as the prevention of malnutrition and falls.

Indicators of oral nutritional supplements prescription in nursing home residents: A cross-sectional study.

BACKGROUND & AIMS: Identifying factors associated with oral nutritional supplement (ONS) prescription in nursing homes (NH) may help to treat malnutrition in this very old and vulnerable population. OBJECTIVES: The aim of the study was to investigate if resident-related and NH-related characteristics were associated with ONS prescription. DESIGN: Cross-sectional study using medical and demographic data from 6275 NH residents and data on the structure and organization (e.g., presence of a dietitian, organization of the meal) of 175 NHs in southwestern France. The main outcome measure was ONS prescription (dichotomous variable: yes/no). RESULTS: ONS were prescribed for 7.8% (n = 489) of NH residents. In a multivariate binary logistic regression, resident-related factors associated with the prescription of ONS were age, clinical markers of undernutrition (body mass index and weight loss), disability in activities of daily living, pain, pressure sores, and hospitalization in the last 12 months. NH-related factors associated with ONS prescription were: presence of a dietitian (Odds Ratio (OR): 1.46, 95% Confidence Interval: 1.18-1.88), NH coordinating physician with specific training in geriatrics (OR: 2.58, 95% CI: 1.48-4.49), organization of evening snack (OR: 1.63, 95% CI: 1.28-2.07), number of general practitioners per NH bed (OR: 0.49, 95% CI: 0.38-0.64 intermediate tertile; OR:0.77, 95% CI:0.59-1.06 highest tertile. Reference category: lowest tertile) and number of drug prescriptions (OR: 0.97, 95% CI: 0.94-0.99). CONCLUSIONS: Both resident's characteristics and NH characteristics were associated with ONS prescription independently of each other. Our results showed that NH organizational aspects are associated with ONS prescribing, suggesting that modifiable aspects may contribute to achieve optimal nutritional status in the NH setting.