Purpose: The Providing Assistance to Caregivers in Transition (PACT) program offers nursing home discharge planning and case management for individuals in the transitional period following a return to the community. The PACT program targeted individuals newly admitted to nursing homes and worked with a family caregiver to develop and implement a nursing home discharge plan. Design and Method: Reported are the results of a randomized control design evaluating the program's effectiveness. Those individuals randomly assigned to the intervention group (n = 33) received PACT case management in addition to their usual medical and nursing home care. The individuals in the control group (n = 29) continued their usual care. Result: There were no statistical differences in the discharge rate (84% treatment vs 76% controls) or in the median length of stay (42 days vs 55 days) between the two groups of individuals. Implications: Replications or extensions of a PACT-type intervention might consider a broader mix of nursing homes, working directly with the nursing home's admission Minimum Data Set coordinator in patient selection, or working with Medicare or Medicaid HMO plans (abstract from:

http://gerontologist.gerontologyjournals.org/cgi/
content/abstract/46/3/385?maxtoshow=&HITS;=10&hits;=10&
RESULTFORMAT=&author1;=newcomer%2C+r&andorexact;
fulltext=and&searchid;=1&FIRSTINDEX;=0&sortspec;=relevance&resourcetype;=HWCIT).

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