The Oregon Caregiver Fall/Winter 2016

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The Oregon Caregiver Fall/Winter 2016 12
quality
Oregon’s population is aging at
a record pace. In 2015, 645,031
Oregonians were 65 years of age
or older, and 84,668 Oregonians were 85
or older. With these numbers expected to
rise significantly over the next 10 years, it
is more important than ever for Oregon’s
long term care facilities to be ready and
available to provide quality, efficient, and
effective care to our aging population.
CareOregon, a nonprofit involved in
health plan services and healthcare
reforms and innovations, has recently
piloted a program that aims to do just
that through strengthening the cultures
within facilities.
In 2014, CareOregon was awarded a
grant from Oregon DHS Seniors and
People with Disabilities to develop
and test a training program designed
to establish a methodology of staff-
directed change management. The
program, referred to as CareHomes
Wellbeing™, was created by England’s
National Health Service Institute for
Innovation and Improvement (NHS) in
2013 and was designed specifically for
caregivers in long-term care settings.
CareOregon’s CareHomes Wellbeing™
program launched in January of last year
for six months in 10 assisted living and
residential care facilities throughout
the state and resulted in a variety of
outcomes and benefits derived from
changes made through the training
process and culture-centric curriculum.
“We had terrific success implementing
a similar program from England’s NHS
in hospital settings and realized how
critical it was to focus on the caregivers
to improve patients’ recoveries,” said
CareOregon’s Senior Business Leader
for Learning and Innovation Barbara
Kohnen Adriance. “So when a similar
program for the long term care sector
came out we knew we wanted to test to
see if using the methodology would bring
about improvements in quality of life for
residents and satisfaction for the staff.”
The program consisted of five primary
components—training, site visits,
sharing events, data collection, and
analysis—and program training focused
on several key ideas: bringing a team
of caregivers within facilities together
CareOregon and OHCA Partner
to Bring Program That Shows How
Culture Can Influence Care
By Rosie Sontheimer, Oregon Health Care Association
Caitlin Vanderschaf (left), Prestige Summerplace, and Sarah Silva, The Springs Living, study some of the staff collaborative
boards from the program.
Phil Haynes from England's NHS and staff from Our House
map out their vision for the program.