Media Release

For: Immediate Release
Date: October 29, 2007

Rhode Island Nursing Home Surveys Will Promote Individualized Care

Today, the Rhode Island Department of Health (HEALTH) announced a new program focused on nursing home residents called the Individualized Care Pilot.  Most Americans say they never want to live in a nursing home, nor do they associate the words “individualized” or “home-like” with their images of a nursing facility.  In response, there is a national movement working to deinstitutionalize nursing homes and make them more responsive to residents’ wants and needs. 

Rhode Island Department of Health’s participation in this national movement, through the Individualized Care Pilot, will begin on November 1, 2007 and will run for six months as part of the annual standard survey process for each Rhode Island nursing home.  The goal of the pilot is to promote individualized, resident-centered care among nursing home staff and to eliminate perceived barriers to such care. 

“We want to encourage nursing homes to think about how well they are providing quality care while honoring the individual needs and choices of our elders.  This pilot will give all homes an opportunity to consider how well they are creating an individualized, home-like environment where the best personal, health, and medical services are provided,” said Director of Health, David R. Gifford, MD, MPH. 

Individualized, resident-directed care places an emphasis on residents making a wide variety of decisions and choices, such as when to wake up and go to sleep or when and how to bathe.  It encourages creating a physical setting where elders will feel comfortable living, rather than maintaining a hospital-like environment.  These characteristics are part of a deeper commitment to relationships between staff and residents that prioritize familiarity, caring, and respect for each person’s individual needs, health, and preferences for maintaining a meaningful life.  While this approach to service delivery is consistent with existing federal and state nursing home regulations, sometimes those regulations are perceived as barriers by nursing home providers.  Another goal of the pilot is to make providers understand that the regulations are designed to promote individualized care and that many of these initiatives can be done within existing budgets with some cost shifting. 
 
The Individualized Care Pilot is funded in part by the Commonwealth Fund and was designed in collaboration with a national Technical Expert Panel, including representation from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.  The project also includes an innovative collaboration with Quality Partners of Rhode Island to provide educational materials about resident-directed choice, staff-resident relationships, and personalized environment to all nursing homes in Rhode Island.   

For more information about the Individualized Care Pilot visit http://www.health.ri.gov/hsr/facilities/icp.php.   For news of national innovations in long-term care, three sources of information are The Pioneer Network, The Eden Alternative, and Wellspring Institute.