• Malene S Davis, Krista L Harrison, James F Rice, Alanna Logan, Barry Hess, Perry G Fine, and J Cameron Muir.
• Capital Caring, Merrifield, Virginia, USA. Electronic address: mdavis@capitalcaring.org.
• J Pain Symptom Manage. 2015 Sep 1; 50 (3): 414-8.

BackgroundA community-based non-profit hospice provider implemented "TeleCaring" as a quality improvement intervention to identify and take action on patient or caregiver needs or concerns, such as uncontrolled symptoms or prescription problems.MeasuresWe assessed the rate of acceptance of the intervention, intensity of the intervention, escalations of calls from Specialists to Nurses, and the effect of the intervention on utilization of clinical services, clinical miles traveled, and family satisfaction with care.InterventionTeleCaring consisted of daily proactive phone calls to patients and caregivers by Specialists and Nurses.OutcomesEighty-eight percent of new home hospice patients accepted TeleCaring when offered. A total of 5.3% of calls by Specialists were escalated to Nurses. TeleCaring participants had lower utilization of clinical services compared with non-participants. Family satisfaction increased and clinical miles decreased across the organization after the implementation of TeleCaring.Conclusions/Lessons LearnedTeleCaring is a viable method to proactively identify home hospice patient or caregiver needs and adjust clinical services accordingly.Copyright © 2015 American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

25 keywords...

hide…