Amedisys Performance Assessment
Agency Paper
Amedisys
Amedisys is a private, for profit agency, which provides support and care for persons in the last phases of incurable disease so they may live as fully and as comfortable as possible. Hospice recognizes dying as a part of the normal process of living and focuses on maintaining the quality of remaining life. Hospice affirms life and neither hastens nor postpones death. Hospice exists to the hope and belief that through appropriate care, and the promotion of a caring community sensitive to their needs, patients and their families may be free to attain the degrees of mental and spiritual preparation for death is satisfactory to them (1).
History
Care of the dying is not a new process. In the earliest beginnings …show more content…
of Christianity, followers were instructed that the care of the sick and dying was a sacred duty. By 325 AD, every large city with a cathedral was directed to have a hospice, and by 398 AD all churches were directed in having hospices. The hospice movement continued into the classical world, through the Middle Ages, the Renaissance and Enlightenment periods. In the late 19th and early 20th century, many bumps in the road were encountered in the Hospice Movement (1).
Dane Cicely Saunders is credited with the beginning of the contemporary hospice movement. She practiced as a nurse, then as a social worker at St. Joseph’s Hospital in London, England. She later went to medical school, and in 1967 founded St. Christopher’s Hospice in London. During lecture tours in the 1960’s, Dame Saunders shared her views and approaches to care for the terminally ill person. During these lecture tours, she came to the United States, and was instrumental in the first hospice opening in the U.S. in 1974 (1).
In the late 1960’s, Dr. Elisabeth Kubler-Ross gained national attention with her book Death and Dying, a book credited with influencing the transformation of the American view of death and dying. The Hospice philosophy today offers an honest and compassionate acceptance of the reality of death and dying. Hospice is recognized as the experts in the care of patients and families at the end of life. They continue to shape the way Americans view death and dying through their work in the community by acting as a resource, and shaping the Hospice of the future (1).
Mission
To provide cost-efficient, quality health care services to the patients entrusted to our care. Their purpose is to assist patients in maintaining and improving their quality of life. Service is their passion (1).
Quality Assessment and Performance Improvement is a process for achieving desired institutional and individual results.
The program is comprehensive and includes activities that assess and improve the quality of service offered by the Amedisys Hospice agencies. The goal of Performance Improvement is the provision of high quality, sustainable health services. Results are achieved through a process that considers the institutional context, describes desired performance, identifies gaps between desired and actual performance, identifies root causes, selects interventions to close the gaps and measures changes in performance (2). Services Provided
Hospice care is delivered by a core interdisciplinary group or groups composed of individuals who work together to meet the physical, medical, psychosocial, emotional, and spiritual needs of hospice patients and families facing terminal illness and bereavement. Other professionals and/or paraprofessionals may also be necessary to meet the patient’s healthcare needs (2).
Medical supplies and equipment including medications identified in the plan of care and related to the palliation and management of the patient’s terminal diagnosis and related conditions will be provided by the hospice …show more content…
(2).
Patient care services are provided and supervised by qualified individuals. Each discipline has an outline of services included in their respective delivery of care and supervisory requirements in the policy and procedure manual. More information is also outlined in the discipline’s job description (2).
Organizational Structure (see chart p.
7) Amedisys’ formal leadership structure(nursing homes and private homes), gives form social response and one on one interactions helps the social worker obtain personal and social relations with the client, whereas the informal setting (office) does not provide the client with beneficial support.
The morale within this agency is genuinely unique. We hug, express our thoughts and concerns, and everyone is actively involved. Also, the funding comes from Medicare (direct pay), Medicaid and Insurance (2).
Role of the Social Worker
The social worker focuses on the psychosocial, physical and spiritual attention to the terminally ill. Both the dying patient and family need to experience the warmth and sensitivity of the caregivers during this stressful time. Social Workers need to understand sensitivity and involvement, but to also place limits and boundaries to avoid fostering an enabling or co-dependent atmospheres. The most important is comfort care, most dying patients biggest fear is pain. We must understand pain control, which will be vital in understanding the end stage.
Duties include:
Individualized Assessment * Psychosocial Distress * Complicated
Grief
Collaboration with Patient and Family * Identify and Enhance Strengths * Identify and Enhance Coping Skills
Collaboration with IDT * Managing psychosocial interventions * Understanding psychosocial aspects of pain
Encourage Communication * Exploration of patterns of communication * Exploration of self-worth * Exploration of role changes in family unit
Promote Behavioral Interventions * Stress relief * Relaxation techniques * Support Groups
Resources
* Advance directives, funeral arrangements * Financial assistance, discharge planning
Social/Environmental Conditions
The agency practices clean before and after care for its patients and employees. We are to sanitize before and after every visit. The care for the patient is a must, yet if the patient has any type of harmful disease, precaution is necessary. These objectives still should not affect the quality or quantity of care given (1).
The procedures used with regard to failure and its initiatives consist of incident reports, evaluations safety and security analysis updates as well. The CDC required test is mandatory and is implemented periodically safeness in all settings(2).
Referral
This agency does not provide listing for referral of a personal or community aspect, yet it receives services and referrals from hospitals, transportation, EMP etc(1).
References http://atwork.amedisys.com/Pages/CLT.aspx http://www.cdc.gov/tb
Amedisys
Amedisys is a private, for profit agency, which provides support and care for persons in the last phases of incurable disease so they may live as fully and as comfortable as possible. Hospice recognizes dying as a part of the normal process of living and focuses on maintaining the quality of remaining life. Hospice affirms life and neither hastens nor postpones death. Hospice exists to the hope and belief that through appropriate care, and the promotion of a caring community sensitive to their needs, patients and their families may be free to attain the degrees of mental and spiritual preparation for death is satisfactory to them (1).
History
Care of the dying is not a new process. In the earliest beginnings …show more content…
of Christianity, followers were instructed that the care of the sick and dying was a sacred duty. By 325 AD, every large city with a cathedral was directed to have a hospice, and by 398 AD all churches were directed in having hospices. The hospice movement continued into the classical world, through the Middle Ages, the Renaissance and Enlightenment periods. In the late 19th and early 20th century, many bumps in the road were encountered in the Hospice Movement (1).
Dane Cicely Saunders is credited with the beginning of the contemporary hospice movement. She practiced as a nurse, then as a social worker at St. Joseph’s Hospital in London, England. She later went to medical school, and in 1967 founded St. Christopher’s Hospice in London. During lecture tours in the 1960’s, Dame Saunders shared her views and approaches to care for the terminally ill person. During these lecture tours, she came to the United States, and was instrumental in the first hospice opening in the U.S. in 1974 (1).
In the late 1960’s, Dr. Elisabeth Kubler-Ross gained national attention with her book Death and Dying, a book credited with influencing the transformation of the American view of death and dying. The Hospice philosophy today offers an honest and compassionate acceptance of the reality of death and dying. Hospice is recognized as the experts in the care of patients and families at the end of life. They continue to shape the way Americans view death and dying through their work in the community by acting as a resource, and shaping the Hospice of the future (1).
Mission
To provide cost-efficient, quality health care services to the patients entrusted to our care. Their purpose is to assist patients in maintaining and improving their quality of life. Service is their passion (1).
Quality Assessment and Performance Improvement is a process for achieving desired institutional and individual results.
The program is comprehensive and includes activities that assess and improve the quality of service offered by the Amedisys Hospice agencies. The goal of Performance Improvement is the provision of high quality, sustainable health services. Results are achieved through a process that considers the institutional context, describes desired performance, identifies gaps between desired and actual performance, identifies root causes, selects interventions to close the gaps and measures changes in performance (2). Services Provided
Hospice care is delivered by a core interdisciplinary group or groups composed of individuals who work together to meet the physical, medical, psychosocial, emotional, and spiritual needs of hospice patients and families facing terminal illness and bereavement. Other professionals and/or paraprofessionals may also be necessary to meet the patient’s healthcare needs (2).
Medical supplies and equipment including medications identified in the plan of care and related to the palliation and management of the patient’s terminal diagnosis and related conditions will be provided by the hospice …show more content…
(2).
Patient care services are provided and supervised by qualified individuals. Each discipline has an outline of services included in their respective delivery of care and supervisory requirements in the policy and procedure manual. More information is also outlined in the discipline’s job description (2).
Organizational Structure (see chart p.
7) Amedisys’ formal leadership structure(nursing homes and private homes), gives form social response and one on one interactions helps the social worker obtain personal and social relations with the client, whereas the informal setting (office) does not provide the client with beneficial support.
The morale within this agency is genuinely unique. We hug, express our thoughts and concerns, and everyone is actively involved. Also, the funding comes from Medicare (direct pay), Medicaid and Insurance (2).
Role of the Social Worker
The social worker focuses on the psychosocial, physical and spiritual attention to the terminally ill. Both the dying patient and family need to experience the warmth and sensitivity of the caregivers during this stressful time. Social Workers need to understand sensitivity and involvement, but to also place limits and boundaries to avoid fostering an enabling or co-dependent atmospheres. The most important is comfort care, most dying patients biggest fear is pain. We must understand pain control, which will be vital in understanding the end stage.
Duties include:
Individualized Assessment * Psychosocial Distress * Complicated
Grief
Collaboration with Patient and Family * Identify and Enhance Strengths * Identify and Enhance Coping Skills
Collaboration with IDT * Managing psychosocial interventions * Understanding psychosocial aspects of pain
Encourage Communication * Exploration of patterns of communication * Exploration of self-worth * Exploration of role changes in family unit
Promote Behavioral Interventions * Stress relief * Relaxation techniques * Support Groups
Resources
* Advance directives, funeral arrangements * Financial assistance, discharge planning
Social/Environmental Conditions
The agency practices clean before and after care for its patients and employees. We are to sanitize before and after every visit. The care for the patient is a must, yet if the patient has any type of harmful disease, precaution is necessary. These objectives still should not affect the quality or quantity of care given (1).
The procedures used with regard to failure and its initiatives consist of incident reports, evaluations safety and security analysis updates as well. The CDC required test is mandatory and is implemented periodically safeness in all settings(2).
Referral
This agency does not provide listing for referral of a personal or community aspect, yet it receives services and referrals from hospitals, transportation, EMP etc(1).
References http://atwork.amedisys.com/Pages/CLT.aspx http://www.cdc.gov/tb