How many times has it been heard: “John is being treated...but he has dementia.”? What is being said when this statement is made? When a statement is made is there limitations made in client care and the revenue that can be generated as well? As the awareness of dementia grows, so does the cost in caring for clients with dementias, but are we leaving health care dollars on the table?
The Risk Factors involved with dementia care are falls, skin integrity, dehydration/malnutrition and decreased socialization/interaction with others just to mention a few. These risk factors can all add up to added health care costs for all involved whether in nursing facilities, assisted living environment, or in a client’s home.
The costs related to care for the client with dementia can become a burden for all involved, causing us to work “harder instead of smarter”. With increased risk factors, the cost of care for dementia clients also increases. For example, risk factors lead to increased risk documentation (incident reports), increased need for safety equipment, increased use of medications (as warranted through documentation), and can ultimately increase the need for more staff to monitor the dementia clients safety, producing a feeling at times of “chasing the tail”. Not only do cost accelerate, but slowly the approach of staff/care givers become reactionary instead of proactive. This can lead to loss of staff retention due to “burn out”, and costs associated with proper replacement of staff.
So the question remains, what can be done? It begins with accurate assessment of the individual with dementia. Therapy can be utilized to assist in decreasing associated risk factors, such as falls; thereby strengthening the components associated with therapeutic interventions with set protocols, and staff/family education. Decreasing risk factors has the potential, then, to decrease healthcare costs.
What is the result of Instituting Dementia Interventions? Through consistent dementia assessment and programming, there can be a decrease in cost factors, a staff focused on being proactive, increased client/family satisfaction which will lead to increased in overall reputation and as an end result enhances census development. Finally, a facility’s financial performance is enhanced by revenues obtained by therapy.
So are we leaving those health care dollars on the table? We are when we do not meet the needs of the dementia client. However, when therapeutic interventions address risk factors as well as when specialized dementia programming is implemented, a facility’s revenues can be enhanced and in turn operational costs reduced.
