[Facilitating Interprofessional Collaboration in Nursing Homes: Effects of a Complex Model Intervention (CoCare) to Improve On-Site Medical Care. Results of a Controlled Study with Pre-Post Measurement].

AIM

The model project "CoCare - Extended coordinated medical care in long-term care homes" (funding: Innovation Committee of the Federal Joint Committee) aspired to improve on-site medical care in nursing homes by introducing a new form of care. Participating nursing homes implemented a number of intervention elements designed to facilitate interprofessional collaboration. We surveyed nursing staff and attending physicians as part of the project's summative evaluation.

METHODS

The intervention group (IG) participated in our survey once before the implementation of the intervention (T0) as well as 12 months after implementation had started (T1). The control group (CG), in which residents received usual treatment ("usual care"), completed one survey. We investigated whether IG participants rated interprofessional collaboration more positively after the intervention, and attempted to detect advantages in their assessment at T1 as compared to the CG. Additionally, we analyzed if IG participants perceived improvements in on-site medical care from T0 to T1 and to what extent they evaluated the intervention and its components as beneficial.

RESULTS

N=836 participants (678 nursing staff and 158 physicians) took part in the surveys. IG nursing staff demonstrated significant improvements in assessment of interprofessional collaboration from T0 to T1, while we found only partially significant improvements among IG physicians. Additionally, IG nursing staff rated interprofessional collaboration significantly better at T1 as compared to the CG. No such differences were found in the physician sample. Both nursing staff and physicians in the IG indicated significant improvements in on-site medical care after the intervention was implemented. They rated the overall intervention as overwhelmingly beneficial. Both professions found the regularly scheduled, weekly ward rounds and the appointment of fixed contact points particularly valuable.

CONCLUSION

The implementation of the "CoCare" measures can improve nursing staff's and physicians' assessments of interprofessional collaboration and on-site medical care. However, participation in the survey was limited, especially among physicians, which reduced the statistical power of calculations.