Guides for Family Caregivers and Health Care Providers to Improve Patient Care Are Now Available in Chinese

Free Guides, Available on the “Next Step in Care” Website, Are Designed to Ensure Safer Transitions between Care Settings

Release Date: 01.04.2010
Contact: rdeluna@uhfnyc.org
Contact Phone: 212 494 0733

To improve the working relationship between family caregivers and health care providers, the United Hospital Fund launched in 2009 the Next Step in Care website, www.nextstepincare.org. In response to popular demand, the guides and checklists that are the core of the website (and were initially offered in English and Spanish) are now available in Chinese.

These guides and checklists—18 intended for family caregivers of persons with serious illness, with others specifically for health care providers—are designed to make patients’ transitions between care settings smoother and safer.

The website is the first stage of a larger campaign, called Next Step in Care, which will engage hospitals, nursing home rehabilitation facilities, and home health agencies, as well as patient advocacy groups and other family caregiver-focused organizations, in addressing a range of transition-related challenges. Many studies have shown that miscommunication and lack of coordination in transitions lead to errors, particularly around medication changes. The tools are expected to reduce confusion and anxiety for family caregivers—family members or friends who provide or manage care—as well as improve patient outcomes and reduce unnecessary rehospitalizations.

“Since we launched this website, we have heard consistently that there is a real need for these free resources in the Chinese community,” said Carol Levine, director of the Families and Health Care Project at United Hospital Fund. “In communities where a strong family unit plays an important role, we find many family caregivers who are providing care for a family member or friend, and family caregivers are the invisible workforce in health care. They are usually responsible for coordination of care after a stay in a hospital, nursing home, or after home care services end. Yet they are rarely trained, supported, or included in transition planning. These guides are intended to give them basic information to navigate an increasingly complex system.

“We are very pleased that this information is now readily available to the Chinese-reading community,” she adds.

An estimated 34 million Americans, or one in five adults, are family caregivers—defined as relatives, partners, friends, or neighbors who provide or manage full- or part-time care to a chronically ill or disabled person. Family caregivers are an essential part of the health care workforce, providing 80 percent of chronic and long-term care in the U.S., and pressures on them are growing. Shorter hospital stays and increased use of outpatient procedures—changes that have increased the effectiveness of medical care in many ways—have shifted responsibility from paid to unpaid providers of care, increasing burdens on family caregivers.

Coordinating care during transitions is particularly challenging in today’s health care system, in which chronically ill patients visit many physicians during any given year and may take a dozen prescription medications daily. When frail elderly or chronically ill patients move from one facility to another, each transition brings new challenges, new providers, and new financial concerns, as well as changes in medication and treatment. The responsibility for many of these changes often falls primarily on the family caregiver.

Next Step in Care aims to help family caregivers better manage transitions in care, in part by helping providers and family caregivers to work more effectively together. Created and tested by the United Hospital Fund, its tools can guide family caregivers in determining what issues to consider, how to seek assistance, how to manage medications, and how to better communicate with physicians and other health care professionals. For example, one guide (“What Do I Need as a Family Caregiver?”) asks a number of basic questions (e.g., “Can you lift the patient?” and “Can you give an injection?”) to help providers and family caregivers assess how well prepared the family caregiver is, what training and support, if any, he or she may need, and what tasks the caregiver cannot manage alone.

“Ultimately, we hope Next Step in Care can change provider practice so that family caregivers are routinely included in transition planning,” said David Gould, senior vice president of United Hospital Fund. “Smoother transitions mean fewer medication and other errors, better patient outcomes, and greater satisfaction among family caregivers and health care providers.”

In addition to the new website, the Next Step in Care campaign will include quality improvement activities, some that are being developed as collaboratives, in which teams from different health care providers work together to identify, implement, and share best practices.

The guides and checklists available on the Next Step in Care website were developed and tested by a team of current and former family caregivers, long-term care experts, and health care providers from hospitals, rehabilitation units in nursing homes, and home care agencies. These tools can be downloaded for free at www.nextstepincare.org. A list of all guides and checklists currently available in Chinese is below; more will be added in the future.

Funds for the guides’ translation into Chinese were provided by TD Bank. Funds to support the development of the Next Step in Care campaign were provided by Altman Foundation, The Jacob and Valeria Langeloth Foundation, Baisley Powell Elebash Fund, Eisenberg Family Trust, Aetna Foundation, The Bloomingdale’s Fund, and The New York Community Trust, as well as the United Hospital Fund.

About the United Hospital Fund: The United Hospital Fund is a health services research and philanthropic organization whose mission is to shape positive change in health care for the people of New York.

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關於家庭照護者: 指南和核對表
www.nextstepincare.org

照護者指南 (Guides for All Caregivers)

• HIPAA：家庭照護者的常見問答 (HIPAA: Questions and Answers for Family Caregivers)
• 您家人的個人健康資料 (Your Family Member's Personal Health Record)
• 藥物管理：家庭照護者指南 (Medication Management: A Family Caregiver's Guide)
• 預立醫療指示：家庭照護者指南 (Advance Directives: A Family Caregiver's Guide)
• 急診 (ER)：家庭照護者指南 (Emergency Room (ER) Visits: A Family Caregiver's Guide)

住院和出院規劃選擇方案 (Hospital Stay and Discharge Planning Options)

• 住院：如何為住院做好規劃和心理準備 (Hospital Admission: How to Plan and What to Expect During the Stay)
• 身為一名家庭照護者，我需要具備哪些條件？ (What Do I Need as a Family Caregiver?)
• 住院到回家 出院指南 (Hospital-to-Home Discharge Guide)
• 回家：您需要知道的事項 (Going Home: What You Need to Know)
• 居家照護簡易指南 (A Brief Guide to Home Care)
• 準備住院復健 (Planning for Inpatient Rehabilitation (Rehab) Services)

復原 (Rehabilitation)

• 辦理復健住院 (Admission to Inpatient Rehabilitation)
• 復健後返家：家庭照護者指南 (Going Home After Rehab: A Family Caregiver's Guide)
• 身為一名家庭照護者，我需要具備哪些條件？ (What Do I Need as a Family Caregiver?)

家庭護理 (Home Care)

• 居家照護簡易指南 (A Brief Guide to Home Care)
• 家庭照護者的居家照護計畫表 (A Family Caregiver’s Planner for Care at Home)
• 當居家照護結束時：家庭照護者指南 (When Home Care Ends: A Family Caregiver's Guide)
• 身為一名家庭照護者，我需要具備哪些條件？ (What Do I Need as a Family Caregiver?)