In a new research study, guidelines were discovered and listed in order to reduce heart failure complications in long-term care (LTC) homes.
Conducted by Dr. George Heckman, who is currently an associate professor in the faculty of Applied Health Sciences, the research provided some insight into long-term care homes and their operations.
With heart failure being the leading cause of death in older adults, affecting over 26 million individuals annually, the research focused on 17 new recommendations in order to prevent ER visits and improve the quality of health and well-being for those residents in long term care homes.
Front-line LTC staff, residents, family caregivers, specialized physicians, nurses and pharmacists were consulted for the study, which has been published in the Canadian Journal on Aging.
Heckman explained, “These new guidelines are a very practical way of ensuring that patients in LTC receive the best possible care when it comes to heart failure. As the population ages, they will only become more critical.” The recommendations include: improving shift-change communication protocols to advance care planning, and improved frameworks for front-line caregivers such as physicians, specialists, system-level professionals, and administrators.
