Health Care Impact Studies
TRECS primary goal is to identify new programs, services and technologies that can effectively address complex problems within our health care system that are negatively impacting seniors and adding unnecessary costs to our health care system.
Our Process in Completing Health Care Impact Studies
- 1.
Identify specific programs, services, or technologies that can help improve the quality of care for seniors and help reduce costs for our health care system.
- 2.
Identify and secure pilot sites and funding sources to implement the potential solution identified and evaluate the impact through real time observational studies
- 3.
Report on the findings of the study and if positive, offer recommendations for expanding the availability of that solution throughout the healthcare system.
Current areas being evaluated:
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Social Robots: Utilizing social robots to support both socially isolated seniors living alone and residents in senior care facilities, by promoting social interaction, reducing loneliness, and enabling remote patient monitoring and medication compliance.
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New Technologies: Implementing tools that help seniors remain independent in their homes while also complementing (not replacing) the work of staff in personal care and skilled nursing facilities.
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Echoes Between Ages: An eight-week intergenerational program pairing high school students with seniors in skilled nursing facilities for weekly, face-to-face interviews about their life stories. The program fosters meaningful social connection and memory engagement for seniors while giving students a powerful perspective on the depth and value of lived experience. At the end, students create written narratives that are compiled into a hardcover book and gifted to each participating senior as a lasting tribute to their legacy.
Sponsored Focus Groups
The TRECS Institute has hosted a series of focus groups with support from the Leonard Davis Institute at the University of Pennsylvania. These focus groups invite national leaders representing all aspects of the topic being discussed with the goal of identifying realistic opportunities, to make improvements, and increase care for our nation's seniors.
Past Focus Groups have included:
Improving Dental Care in our Nation's Skilled Nursing Facilities
The Availability of Behavioral Health Services in Long Term Care
Low Income Senior Housing in America
The “No Brainers” in Long Term Care
Past Health Care Impact Studies
Telemedicine in Long Term Care to Reduce Unnecessary and Avoidable SNF to Hospital Admissions (2022)
Initial Case Study
- A study to evaluate if the use of telemedicine could help reduce unnecessary and avoidable SNF to hospital transfers, especially during evening and weekend hours. A total of 28 Florida SNFs implemented telemedicine services and the results were track over 12 months.
Discoveries
- A total of 646 seniors were identified as having avoided a hospital readmission as a direct result of the telemedicine intervention
- Savings to CMS from these avoided hospitalizations was estimated at Over $6.4 million dollars
- For the participating facilities, an average of over $40,000 of added revenue was achieved with several closer ot $100,000.
Recommendations
- Telemedicine should be made available in skilled nursing facilities across America
- If telemedicine was available in all 15,000 SNFs across America, it could prevent well over 300,000 unnecessary and avoidable admissions a year generating a savings for CMS in excess of $3billion dollars.
Past Health Care Studies Conducted
- Improving Dental and Oral Care Services for Nursing Facility Residents Funded by CMS (2006)
- Reducing CNA Turnover Utilizing Nurse Practitioners in SNFs Funded by CMS (2010)
- Amazing Stories to Be Told. A program designed to connect high school juniors with seniors in SNFs. Funded by TRECS (Started in 2015 and continues annually)
- Advancing Quality of Care for Nursing Facility Residents through Telemedicine Funded by CMS in Florida with 28 participating SNFs (2022)
- Advancing Quality of Care for Nursing Facility Residents through Telemedicine Funded by CMS in North Carolina with 10 participating SNFs (2023)
- Improving Dental and Oral Care Services for Nursing Facility Residents – An update of the original study in 2006. Funded by Citizens Security Insurance Company