Health Maintenance CPG

Health maintenance in post-acute and long-term care (PALTC) settings incorporates systemic, proactive approaches that promote patients’ physical, emotional, psychological, cognitive, and functional integrity. Early detection and prevention of illness may reduce morbidity and mortality in the elderly.

Standard published guidelines for preventive care may be insufficient when applied to populations such as the frail, institutionalized elderly. Implementation of individualized preventive care measures may represent an opportunity to improve longevity or quality of life for frail elders. This CPG focuses on primary prevention, to the extent that it is feasible and beneficial in the frail elderly PALTC population.

Outcomes that may be expected from the implementation of this CPG include the following:

• Improved health and well-being of patients,
• More appropriate resource utilization,
• A reduction in the number of patients who receive inappropriate interventions or care,
• An increase in the number of patients who receive appropriate interventions and care,
• Facilitation of patient-centered care goals (i.e., goals that are appropriate to patients’ needs and wishes),
• Improved awareness among health care providers and facility staff of appropriate preventive health interventions for patients in the PALTC setting,
• Better-informed patients and patients’ families or advocates, with more appropriate expectations about patients’ care goals, and
• Improved quality outcomes and reporting to government and other agencies.