COVID-19 Collaborative Model for an Academic Hospital and Long-Term Care Facilities

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic is devastating post-acute and long-term care (PA/LTC). As geriatricians practicing in PA/LTC and a regional academic medical center, we created this program for collaboration between academic medical centers and regional PA/LTC facilities. The mission of the Geriatric Engagement and Resource Integration in Post-Acute and Long-Term Care Facilities (GERI-PaL) program is to support optimal care of residents in PA/LTC facilities during the COVID-19 pandemic. There are 5 main components of our program: (1) Project ECHO; (2) nursing liaisons; (3) infection advisory consultation; (4) telemedicine consultation; and (5) resident social contact remote connections. Implementation of this program has had positive response from our local PA/LTC facilities. A key component of our program is our interprofessional team, which includes physicians and nursing, emergency response, and public health experts. With diverse professional backgrounds, our team members have created a new model for academic medical centers to collaborate with local PA/LTC facilities.

Telehealth Use in Geriatrics Care during the COVID-19 Pandemic—A Scoping Review and Evidence Synthesis

“…Free communication platforms [44,59,[73][74][75][76] Readily available web-based training [77][78][79] Standardized documentation and real time reporting to improve quality of care [80] Digital photographs and asynchronous sharing to circumvent connectivity issues [77] Wearable devices, remote monitoring sensors and other technologies as early warning tools [59,81] Automatic speech analysis for diagnosis and monitoring of dementia [82] Enhanced integration of specialty expertise care of nursing home residents [70,83] Possibility of daily community collaborative rounds involving multiple services providers in nursing homes [84] Technology that is easy to understand pertaining to different interfaces, passwords, and maintenance [56,70] T-Threats Ambiguous/technical jargon for descriptive terms [85] Large variability of available telehealth platforms [70] Lack of sustained insurance reimbursement [11] Digital divide for some due to lack of equipment, limited literacy, and lack of assistance [56,63,72,[86][87][88][89][90][91][92][93] Ageism/stigma leading to de-prioritization of older people [94,95] Failure to include older people in standardizing telehealth [56] Lack of tested clinical tools for telehealth use [65,96] Technical failures and patient dropout …”

“Celebrating old age”: an obsolete expression during the COVID-19 pandemic? Medical, social, psychological, and religious consequences of home isolation and loneliness among the elderly

“…To stay active in the community from home ; currently, many organisations – political parties, faith-based groups, non-profit organisations – rely on volunteers to deliver care/help for the elderly and frail [ 122 ].…”

A Systematic Narrative Review of Comprehensive Preparedness Strategies of Healthcare Resources for a Large Resurgence of COVID-19 Nationally, with Local or Regional Epidemics: Present Era and Beyond

“…Describing approaches falling under six predefined domains, 33 articles specifically focused on preparedness strategies of healthcare resources for the pandemic ( Table 1 ). 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 The final list of selected publications included 3 original articles, 9 commentaries, and 21 review articles. All but six articles were published between 2019 and 2020.…”

“…A collaborative model for academic hospitals and long-term care facilities would enable healthcare facilities to meet the real-time facility needs for the containment of the pandemic. 13 14 However, in order to maintain such a realistic medical system, appropriate institutional support and compensation systems must be guaranteed.…”