Health Care Innovation Awards: University of Chicago Project Profile

UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS FOR MEDICAL SCIENCES

Project Title: "Cost-effective delivery of enhanced home caregiver training"
Geographic Reach: Arkansas, California, Hawaii, Texas
Funding Amount: $3,615,818
Estimated 3-Year Savings: $1,286,251

Summary

The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences received an award for enhanced training of both family caregivers and the direct-care workforce in order to improve care for elderly patients requiring long-term care services, including Medicare beneficiaries qualifying for home healthcare services and Medicaid beneficiaries who receive homemaker and personal care assistant services. Inadequate training of the direct care worker has been shown to have a direct impact on the quality of care to the elderly. By enhancing the training of the direct-care workforce, the increasingly complex care needs of the older adult can be better managed in the home, leading to fewer avoidable hospital admissions and readmissions, better preventive care, better compliance with care, and avoidance of unnecessary institutional care. The investments made by this grant are expected to generate cost savings beyond the three year grant period. Over a three-year period, The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences' program will train an estimated 2,100 workers and will create an estimated four jobs. The new workforce will include a project manager, a nurse educators and an administrative assistant. Additionally, this program will train home care givers in rural areas using distance education. Through tuition and textbook support in the form of microcredit loans, this program will increase the number of certified caregivers providing direct care to elderly adults.

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