Frequently Asked Questions
Below you will find answers to some of our most frequently asked questions. If you're unable to find your answer here, please feel free to contact us.
- Geriatric Case Management
- Transitional Placement
- Legal Nurse Consulting
- Long Term Care (LTC) Facility Consulting
- Life-Care-Planning
Geriatric Case Management
What is a Professional Geriatric Case Manager?
A PGCM is a health and human services specialist who is a guide, advocate, and resource for older individuals and families caring for older relatives or friends. The PGCM assists older adults and individuals with disabilities to reach their maximum potential. They encourage independence while being sure safety and security concerns are being met. PGCM's have extensive knowledge about the costs, quality and availability of resources in their communities.
What is Geriatric Care Management?
Geriatric Care Management is a series of steps taken by a Geriatric Case Manager (GCM) to help facilitate the process of solving the issues and problems the elderly community and their families may encounter. A GCM can be most helpful and provide timely guidance when an older person and their family faces critical decisions during a time of transition or crisis. Geriatric Care Management is also a preventative service rendered on demand which can increase the quality of an older individual's life. GCM's facilitate the management of all the individuals and agencies involved with the rendering of care for the client. This process offers assurance and peace of mind to the older individual and to their families.
What is transitional placement?
Transitional placement is assistance with moving an older individual to or from their home, or hospital (etc), to a retirement complex, assisted living or nursing home.
What can a Professional Geriatric Care Manager do for me?
A professional Geriatric Care Manager (GCM) can provide peace of mind to older individuals and their families by:
- Offering professional opinions on medical and healthcare issues.
- Screening, arranging and monitoring in-home help and other in-home services.
- COnducting care planning assessments to help identify possible problems and then provide possible solutions.
- Acting as a liaison for families at a distance.
- Overseeing an elder's care and quickly alerting families to potential problems.
- Periodically monitoring an elder in their health care facility and providing feedback to families at a distance.
Why use a Geriatric Care Manager (GCM)?
Geriatric Care Managers (GCM) provide a variety of services for seniors and caregivers. A GCM generally provides a home assessment and then creates a senior care plan recommendation based on the interview.
Of course, you are not obligated to implement any portion of the care plan, but at least you will have the necessary tools to understand many of the home dynamics that are often over-looked due to being emotionally close to the senior or living too far away.
Your Geriatric Care Manager can:
- Make a professional assessment
- Arrange & monitor care services
- Find community resources
- Assist with a residential placement
- Be a source for information
Transitional Placement
What are the two types of home-care services?
Housekeeping – custodial care - Homemaker service is extended to individuals who are unable to perform day to day household duties and have no one available to assist them. Services include light housekeeping, laundry, limited personal care, grocery shopping, meal preparation, and shopping assistance.
Home Health -- Home health care is recognized as an increasingly important alternative to hospitalization or care in a nursing home for patients who do not need 24 hour day professional supervision. Many people find it possible to remain at home for the entire duration of their illness or at least to shorten their hospital stay. In many cases readmission to the hospital can be prevented or delayed. A variety of health services are provided in a home health care program in the patient's home, under the direction of a physician.
Skilled nursing care is health care given when you require nursing assistance full time (24/7 care) or medical rehabilitation staff to manage,observe, and evaluate your care. Examples of skilled care include changing sterile dressing and physical therapy. It is given in a SNF (Skilled Nursing Facility). Care that can be given by non-professional staff is not considered skilled care. People do not usually stay in a SNF until they are completely recovered. Medicare covers certain skilled care services that are needed daily on a short-term basis (up to 100 days).
Skilled care requires the involvement of skilled nursing or rehabilitative staff in order to be given safely and effectively.
Skilled nursing and rehabilitation staff includes:
registered nurses, licensed practical and vocational nurses, physical and occupational therapists, speech-language pathologists, and audiologists.
Sometimes these caregivers need time off to relax or take care of other responsibilities. This is where respite care can be helpful. It provides the -family caregivers with the break they need, and also ensures that their elderly loved one is still receiving the attention that he or she needs.
Respite care is not all the same. Respite can vary in time from part of a day to several weeks. Respite encompasses a wide variety of services including traditional home-based care, as well as adult day care, skilled nursing, home health, and short term institutional care. More specifically respite care may take any one of the following forms:
- Adult Day Care: These programs are designed to provide care and companionship for frail and disabled persons who need assistance or supervision during the day. The program offers relief to family members or caregivers and allows them the freedom to go to work, handle personal business or just relax while knowing their relative is well cared for and safe.
- Informal and Volunteer Respite Care: This is as simple as it sounds. It is accepting help from other family members, friends, neighbors, or church volunteers who offer to stay with the elderly individual while you go to the store or run other errands. Sometimes your local church group or area agency on aging (AAA) will even run a formal “Friendly Visitor Program” in which volunteers may be able to provide basic respite care, as well. Many communities have formed either Interfaith Caregiver or Faith in Action Programs where volunteers from faith-based communities are matched with caregivers to provide them with some relief.
- In-home respite care: Generally speaking, in-home respite care involves the following four types of services for the more impaired older person:
- Companion services to help the family caregiver supervise, entertain, or just visit with the senior when he or she is lonely and wants company.
- Homemaker services to assist with housekeeping chores, preparing meals, or shopping.
- Personal care services to help the aged individual bathe, get dressed, go to the bathroom,
- and/or exercise.
- Skilled care services to assist the family caregiver in tending to the senior’s medical needs, such as when administering medications.
The cost of respite care varies with the type of agency and the services needed, but federal and/or state programs may help to pay for it. Long term care insurance policies may cover some of the cost of respite care. Your local AAA will have more information on whether financial assistance is available, depending on your situation and where you live.
Legal Nurse Consulting
What is a legal nurse consultant (LNC)?
A Legal Nurse Consultant acts as an educator, collaborator and strategist in medical-legal matters. An LNC’s primary role is to evaluate, analyze, and render informed opinions on the delivery of health care and the resulting outcomes.
What is a holistic perspective?
A holistic perspective is incorporative knowledge and skills from a variety of disciplines to address the physical, mental, social and spiritual health of individuals.
What types of cases does/can and LNC review?
- Medical and dental malpractice
- Personal injury
- Toxic torts
- Product liability
- Workers compensation
- Disability
- Risk management
Long Term Care (LTC) Facility Consulting
Who contracts with a long term care (LTC) facility consultant?
A LTC Facility Consultant contracts with the owners and/or administration team of long term care facilities
What does a LTC facility consultant do?
A LTC Facility Consultant evaluates the overall operational effectiveness of the LTC facility and provides an external review for the benefit of the owner, administrator, director of nursing, marketing manager, nursing staff and residents. NAR focuses on risk management practices while evaluating the operational elements such as: staff efficiencies; case mix (staff to resident ratio); HIPPA and OSHA regulations; RN admission assessments; staff communication; medication and narcotic distribution systems; etc.
During and after the review NAR provides comprehensive feedback, proposes recommendations, and teams with the administrator, director of nursing, marketing manager and staff to implement the recommendations.
How long does the LTC assessment take?
Depending on the depth and intensity of the agreed upon contract requirements, LTC facility evaluations can last anywhere from two weeks (for a specific operational assessment) to six months (for a comprehensive examination and implementation of findings).
Life-Care-Planning
Life care planning is a process in which a legal nurse consultant (LNC) evaluates an individuals medical condition to determine appropriate requirements and costs associated with caring for that individual for the remainder of that individual's live.
A life care planner contracts with attorneys and their firms to help them determine an accurate assessment of the costs associated with appropriately caring for their client's situation.
A life care plan is a detailed narrative legal written report containing cost projections (including projected future contingencies) associated with caring for individuals with catastrophic injuries and/or long-term disabilities. A legal nurse consultant (LNC) researches the range of possible expenses and then compiles these bids into future cost projections which can then be utilized during medication and/or litigation.