To be blunt, if you don't use it you lose it -- this seems to apply to just about everything in life. COLLAGE members are increasing showing interest in report generation and program development -- it's very encouraging. Last week Jen Wilson from Carol Woods in North Carolina (a COLLAGE member) wrote:
Q: "Is there any summary of 'what COLLAGE can tell you', meaning types/examples of questions it can answer?
A: What COLLAGE can tell you is a universe of information, potentially limitless. This is not said to be a smart aleck or to market the program. It's stated because it's fact -- once you start to combine different variables, even just two at a time, it opens up a cascade of data. For example, let's say that you wish to correlate the following two assessment items and find out the names and number of residents who:
- Coded a 0, 1 or 2 on Activity Level (see the Community Health Assessment, section G 4a -- total hours of exercise/physical activity in last 3 days) AND
- Coded a 2 or 3 (fair or poor) on Self-Rated Health (section J 8)
This information was described by one of our members recently as being particularly helpful to their quality improvement work. You can take any assessment items and make a two variable question out of it -- some that come to immediate mind include:
-- pain and level of exercise/activity (How many and who of our residents rated their pain control as a 4 or 5 -- i.e., not adequate -- and their level of exercise/activity is "low"?)
-- continence and level of exercise/activity
-- pain and self-rated health
-- falls and fatigue
-- pain and ADLs
-- falls and level of exercise/activity
-- pain and mood
-- anxiety and social relationships
The right questions asked may yield some interesting results and may allow you to target programs, interventions, and services to specific residents or your aggregate group to improve healthy aging.
With reference to the first example above, it's always interesting to read the issue posed verbatim. Kathy Hauser from Carolina Meadows (a COLLAGE member) recently wrote:
"Our interest is to assess how many residents get no exercise/activity, less than one hour or one to two hours (section G4a). I looked at data from last year in each category and compared to this year so at least we can see who may have increased their activity even if they are still triggering. This way, we know if we are on the right path to at least improving.
I'm also looking at residents who rated their health as fair or poor (J8) and looking at what CAPS they triggered. For us the biggest issues were pain and physical activity. During the interview, I always ask, 'What would have to change for you to change your answer to having good health?' Residents usually respond with 'improvement in pain control' or 'increasing energy.' So this verifies that we should be looking at physical activity and pain control. How a person rates their overall health, says a lot about how they feel.
For those who triggered pain, I was interested in knowing of the many residents who triggered pain, how many of them and who felt their pain was under control? To me this was very important in who to focus on."
Carolina Meadows wants to know whether their resident outcomes are improving over time, and which residents to go after with interventions and resources who, despite the organization's best effort, may not be showing improvement.
Are you able to look at assessment data over time to determine whether progress is being made by individuals or your aggregate group of residents/clients? COLLAGE provides its members with a healthy dose of good data to ultimately support the independence of their residents.
Neil Beresin
