Improving Resident Lives by Transforming Residential Long-Term Care to a Person-Centered Model

Overview

Altarum received funding from the states of Michigan, Tennessee, and Kentucky to work directly with nursing homes dedicated to shifting away from an institutional medical model towards a more joyful, vibrant, person-centered, focused living community. Alongside the nationally known culture change expert, The Eden Alternative, we provide nursing homes targeted education and guidance that leverages comprehensive person-centered data sets to provide feedback in alignment with their ongoing quality assurance efforts to drive sustainable transformation forward. 

Approach

In partnership with The Eden Alternative®, we brought intensive, individualized training and coaching to each nursing home participating in the three-year project. Altarum navigators provide mentorship and guidance around person-centered care practices while the Eden consultants provide coaching and training to support the goals of each home. Our teams specialize in meeting homes where they’re at by leveraging their person-centered data captured in our Systems Change Tracking Tool and aligning it with their current quality assurance and performance improvement projects to ensure  maximum impact. 

Transitioning from an institutional model to a person-centric mindset doesn’t have to be difficult or labor intensive with the assistance of our dedicated teams. Using evidence-informed practices to create our System Change Tracking Tool℠ (SCTT), homes can visualize progress and identify areas of need. Altarum is helping long-term care providers amplify resident voices and live a more joyful and dignified life through targeted education, comprehensive data collection methodologies, and supporting tools in alignment with their current improvement projects. 

Results

Even during the height of the pandemic, participating nursing homes in Michigan continued to make progress, and many said their knowledge of person-centered practices helped them better respond to residents’ needs during the pandemic restrictions. All six participating homes in Michigan said they would do this project again, and all made progress on most of the SCTT measures. Resident lives were improved and staff experienced a more positive and uplifting work environment—a win-win!

Experts

Anne Hicks-Dorantes
Long-Term Services and Supports Specialist
Colleen Quintal
Quality Improvement Advisor, Delivery System Transformation