Perspectives on Better Care Blog

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Home: Perhaps the Most Important “Care Setting”

The program, known as Community Aging in Place — Advancing Better Living for Elders (CAPABLE), is a client-directed home-based intervention to increase mobility, functionality, and capacity to “age in place” for older adults.

Are Social Workers Missing from Your Complex Care Teams?

Many studies have highlighted the importance of effective interprofessional care teams to improve health outcomes for people with complex needs. But many programs do not take advantage of the special training of social workers to meet these needs on their primary health care teams.

Why Don’t Hospitals Treat Addiction Like Heart Attacks?

It is relatively common knowledge among those that treat patients in a hospital setting that addiction-related issues are the number-one driver of extended length of stay, 30-day readmissions, and job-related dissatisfaction and burnout.

No More Excuses: It’s Time to Treat Opioid Addiction

Addiction is a chronic neurobiological disorder that is predictable, identifiable, and treatable. Dr. Corey Waller explains why evidence-based treatment needs to be in hospitals, primary care, stand-alone rehabs, and throughout the ecosystem of health care.

A Strategic Plan for ‘Radically Different’ Care

Discusses the Blueprint for Complex Care — a joint project of the National Center for Complex Health and Social Needs, the Center for Health Care Strategies, and the Institute for Healthcare Improvement — which is acting as a strategic plan for the emerging field of complex care.

Engaging Family Caregivers in Programs for People with Complex Needs

Most care delivery systems don’t proactively identify and meaningfully engage or support family caregivers in visits or care plans. Jennifer Wolff, PhD, a gerontologist and health services researcher shares how complex care programs can better engage families in care for patients.

Who Are Complex Care Patients?

Patients with complex needs are often described as the five percent of patients who account for 50 percent of health care spending. Behind that often cited statistic are the individuals who make up that population — all of whom have their own stories and needs.

An International Perspective on High-Need, High-Cost Patients

Marit Tanke, MD, PhD, a Commonwealth Fund Harkness Fellow, walks us through her research to analyze high-need, high-cost patients across four countries — including her methodology, how costly these patients are, who these patients are, and how they use health care.