Ohio nursing home transition programs show promise

A new program aimed at diverting and transitioning Ohioans from nursing homes has helped approximately two-thirds of a targeted group of older Ohioans remain in or return to their own homes and communities, according to a recent report from the Scripps Gerontology Center at Miami University.

The report, “Ohio’s Aging Network Efforts to Enhance Nursing Home Diversion and Transition,” reveals that of 1,259 Ohioans who had been in a nursing home for three months or longer, but were identified as possibly able to live non-institutionally, 53 percent were living in their own homes and communities after six months, and another 14 percent transitioned to assisted living. Of 1,974 older Ohioans deemed “at risk” of entering a nursing home, nearly two-thirds were still living in their own homes and communities after six months; 18 percent were deceased and 17 percent had entered a nursing home.

The study, conducted between March 2010 and February 2011, is an evaluation of a legislative directive to the Ohio Department of Aging (ODA) to develop a state nursing home diversion and transition program. ODA and the state’s 12 Area Agencies on Aging (AAAs) worked together to identify long-stay nursing home residents who might be able to live more independently, as well as older persons whose health and lack of family and social support put them “at very high risk” of nursing home placement. Some of these high risk persons were already enrolled in the state’s PASSPORT home-care program, or experiencing a short stay in a nursing home or hospital.

Interventions used by the AAAs to help divert and transition mostly older Ohioans in this concentrated effort included increasing the number of in-home services and enhancing caregiver training and support.

The report, authored by Robert Applebaum, Tony Bardo, Suzanne Kunkel and Elizabeth Carpio, cautions that results are preliminary, but notes, “the finding that two-thirds of both the diversion group and the nursing home transition group are in the community after six months indicates a potentially promising practice for the area agency network.”

Download this brief report home-diversion-and-transition.