Nursing Home Training to Impact CMS Indicators

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): At least half of all nursing home residents have Alzheimer's Disease or another dementing condition [7], and many nursing home caregivers lack needed knowledge and skills to provide appropriate care [4-10]. Beginning in the fall of 2002, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) began posting on its website scores for all nursing homes on ten quality indicators, three of which are particularly relevant for dementia care (use of physical restraints, pain management, and maintenance of late-loss Activities of Daily Living--ADLs). Healthcare Interactive, in an innovative collaboration with the national Alzheimer's Association, proposes to apply the capabilities of interactive multimedia to the educational needs of professional and paraprofessional caregivers in nursing homes and assisted living facilities with the eventual Phase Ii goal of impacting these CMS indicators. The goal of the Phase I project is to demonstrate feasibility of an Internet-based interactive multimedia training resource targeted to professional and paraprofessional caregivers of nursing home residents with Alzheimer's disease or another dementing condition. By providing general training about Alzheimer's and dementia care with focused attention to the areas measured by the three CMS indicators, the prototype should result in improved care practices and outcomes for the residents and improved scores for the nursing homes. Plans for Phase Ii include product completion and efficacy testing to determine the extent of which the training program impacts the indicators. Primary commercialization will concentrate on marketing efforts with the national office of the Alzheimer's Association and publishers of interactive health-related content on the Internet. Since nursing home administrators value higher scores on the CMS quality indicators, the inclusion of training on areas measured by the three indicators should help in convincing administrators to purchase and use the proposed training package. This Phase 1 submission is strengthened by multiple letters of support from nursing homes, the involvement of professional focus groups, the expertise of a National Advisory Board to guide the development process, the offer of 300 hours of in-kind support from the national office of the Alzheimer's Association should this Phase I be approved, and the agreement by the Association to market the resulting product.