Background Self-management of complex medication regimens for chronic illness is challenging for many older adults. Objectives The purpose of this study was to evaluate health status outcomes of frail older adults receiving a home-based support program that emphasized self-management of medications using both care coordination and technology. Design Randomized controlled trial with three arms and longitudinal outcome measurement. Setting Older adults having difficulty self-managing medications (N = 414) were recruited at discharge from three Medicare-certified home health care agencies in a Midwestern urban area. Methods All participants received baseline pharmacy screens. The control group received no further intervention. A team of advanced practice nurses and registered nurses coordinated care for 12 months to two intervention groups who also received either an MD.2 medication-dispensing machine or a medplanner. Health status outcomes (Geriatric Depression Scale, Mini-Mental Status Examination, Physical Performance Test, and the SF-36 Physical Component Summary and Mental Component Summary) were measured at baseline, 3, 6, 9, and 12 months. Results After covariate and baseline health status adjustment, time by group interactions for the MD.2 and medplanner groups on health status outcomes were not significant; time by group interactions were significant for medplanner and control group comparisons. Discussion Participants with care coordination had significantly better health status outcomes over time than those in the control group, but addition of the MD.2 machine to nurse care coordination did not result in better health status outcomes.

ObjectivesTo determine whether a home-based care coordination program focused on medication self-management would affect the cost of care to the Medicare program and whether the addition of technology, a medication-dispensing machine, would further reduce cost.DesignRandomized, controlled, three-arm longitudinal study.SettingParticipant homes in a large Midwestern urban area.ParticipantsOlder adults identified as having difficulty managing their medications at discharge from Medicare Home Health Care (N = 414).InterventionA team consisting of advanced practice nurses (APNs) and registered nurses (RNs) coordinated care for two groups: home-based nurse care coordination (NCC) plus a pill organizer group and NCC plus a medication-dispensing machine group.MeasurementsTo measure cost, participant claims data from 2005 to 2011 were retrieved from Medicare Part A and B Standard Analytical Files.ResultsOrdinary least squares regression with covariate adjustment was used to estimate monthly dollar savings. Total Medicare costs were $447 per month lower in the NCC plus pill organizer group (P = .11) than in a control group that received usual care. For participants in the study at least 3 months, total Medicare costs were $491 lower per month in the NCC plus pill organizer group (P = .06) than in the control group. The cost of the NCC plus pill organizer intervention was $151 per month, yielding a net savings of $296 per month or $3,552 per year. The cost of the NCC plus medication-dispensing machine intervention was $251 per month, and total Medicare costs were $409 higher per month than in the NCC plus pill organizer group.ConclusionNurse care coordination plus a pill organizer is a cost-effective intervention for frail elderly Medicare beneficiaries. The addition of the medication machine did not enhance the cost effectiveness of the intervention.

The Nationwide Inpatient Sample was useful for estimating national incidence and case-fatality rates, as well as examining independent predictors of nosocomial BSI.

The objective of this study was to compare the community-based, long-term care program called Aging in Place (AIP) and nursing home care, in terms of cost to the Medicare and Medicaid programs. A retrospective cohort design was used in this study of 39 nursing home residents in the Midwest who were matched with 39 AIP participants. The AIP program consisted of a combination of Medicare home health, Medicaid home and community-based services (HCBS), and intensive nurse care coordination. Controlling for high inpatient Medicare cost in the 6 months prior and the 10 most frequently occurring chronic conditions, multiple regression was used to estimate the relationship of the AIP program on Medicare and Medicaid costs. Total Medicare and Medicaid costs were $1,591.61 lower per month in the AIP group (p < 0.01) when compared with the nursing home group over a 12-month period. The findings suggest that the provision of nurse-coordinated HCBS and Medicare home health services has potential to provide savings in the total cost of health care to the Medicaid program while not increasing the cost of the Medicare program.

The application of space-time forecasting models requires the specification of a set of place-to-place weights. The existing literature contains several recommendations for this specification. By a series of Monte Carlo simulations, various weighting rules are compared in terms of estimation of model parameters and accuracy of forecasts. It is shown that specification of the weights is important, especially when sample sizes are small and the data autocorrelated. Generally, the effective area of the weight function is more important than its distance decay.

The purpose of this study was to identify whether severe postpartum fatigue at 1 and 3 months postpartum was associated with depressive symptomatology at 6 months in lower-income urban women. A convenience sample of 43 lower-income postpartum women completed the Modified Fatigue Symptoms Checklist and Edinburgh Postpartum Depression scale at 1, 3, and 6 months postpartum. Participants who were severely fatigued at both 1 and 3 months postpartum were significantly more likely to exhibit depressive symptomatology at 6 months. Fatigue and depressive symptoms were moderately to strongly correlated at 1 (r = .68), 3 (r = .74), and 6 (r = .70) months postpartum (p = .001). Severe fatigue and depressive symptomatology often co-exist for months after childbirth. Future research should examine whether interventions to targeting severe postpartum fatigue in lower-income urban women may also effectively reduce depressive symptoms.

'Communicate' and 'manage' activities are widely used in care coordination. This confirmed the expert hypothesis that nurse care coordinators spent most of their time communicating about their patients and managing problems. Overall, nurses performed care coordination in both AIP and HHC, but the aggregated dose across Omaha problems and categories is larger in AIP.

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