THE VILLAGE AT MARYMOUNT’S SENIOR MANAGEMENT TEAM PRESENTS PROJECT TO HEALTH CARE PROFESSIONALS

Members of The Village at Marymount’s senior management team -- Executive Director Sue Nall, a Brecksville resident, and Administrator Dan Storey -- joined Medical Director Karim Lopez, MD, at the Aligning Forces for Quality: Improving Health and Health Care in Communities Across America conference March 1-2 in Chicago.

The team presented the “Better Health Greater Cleveland Project – The Partners in Transition: The Value of Medication Reconciliation and Improved Patient Safety,” which is being conducted in conjunction with Villa St. Joseph, Cleveland Clinic, Kaiser Permanente, and Menorah Park. The specific aim of the project is to generate a best practice for preparing patients and primary care providers for discharge from skilled nursing facilities to home, Nall said. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation governs grants for the program.

The team made the same presentation in Cleveland on March 8 during the Learning Collaborative Summit XII to a group of about 20 health care professions, five of whom are physicians. The program’s aim is to revolutionize care by creating safer, seamless coordination through the transition from post acute care to medical home, Nall said.

The group established a best practice related to medication reconciliation for preparing patients and primary care providers for discharge from skilled nursing facilities to home, and by demonstrating best practice to the community, Nall said.

These proposed changes will lead to improved experiences of practitioners, patients, and caregivers; fewer adverse events with medications and home care issues; and fewer emergency room visits within seven days of discharge.

“We worked in conjunction with Kaiser Permanente to review and reconcile each patient’s medications throughout their journey from acute care to post acute care to home,” Storey said.

This process includes receiving a patient's pre-hospitalization medication list from Kaiser Permanente once they are admitted to the post acute setting. The patient’s hospital medications are reconciled at the post acute setting to pre-hospitalization medications. The post discharge medication list is then relayed from the post acute care setting to the patient’s primary care physician.

“Once the patient is admitted to the skilled nursing facility the next step is to reconcile the medications,” Storey explained. “We also prepare them for home and discharge.”

Post discharge, Villa St. Joseph’s administrative team and Dr. Lopez will ensure that all steps are completed and performed as determined in the program work flow. The team will collect and review ongoing statistics, Nall said. The insurance company and the patient’s home health agency will review and evaluate medications and discrepancies while in the community setting. They will report back to the program group for any follow up.