NHoF Blog
The NHoF blog covers the progress of the Nursing Home of the Future program and connects our in-depth work with elder care trends in the wider world.
Nursing Home of the Future Update: Innovation in Medication Management Sorely Needed
Soon after BIF launched the Nursing Home of the Future (NHoF) laboratory, medication (and the management of that medication) clearly emerged as a part of the elder experience that has a big impact on quality of life.
Managing medications can be difficult and confusing for everyone and a great deal of focus has been placed on developing products and systems that help people take the right medicines, at the right time and in the right way. We also know that people with especially complicated medication regimes have come up with thousands of ways to manage medication—from novel ways to store and take their meds to excel spreadsheets and logbooks that bring order to an otherwise confusing routine. Helping elders and aging people manage medications is an important part of helping people maximize the effectiveness of drug therapies and minimize the risks of side effects.
Our work in the NHoF lab has shown us that there is room for improvement in the medication management arena.
Nursing Home of the Future Lab Takes on Challenges, Opportunities in Medication Management
The NHoF team has created "modules" of activity in the lab devoted to areas of the elder experience most deeply in need of new solutions. The team recently launched a Medication Management module to better understand how elders manage their medications and begin to design and develop new solutions that make the process work and feel better for elders and those that support them.
Nursing Home of the Future Lab Preps for Move into Active Experimentation
As BIF heads into 2009, work continues full steam in the Nursing Home of the Future (NHoF) laboratory. Leveraging the work of Phase I and the relationships BIF has created with Tockwotton Home, NHoF project advisors, BIF partners from the private sector, and elder care experts from across the country, the NHoF team is now set to begin active experimentation in areas most deeply in need of new solutions. At the heart of this next phase of work is a strategy that engages elders directly in the development of protocols that govern NHoF lab methodology.
A Thousands Words: The NHoF Photography of Stephanie Ewens
Our work in the nursing home and assisted living environment has emphasized the need for a very intimate, informal, and not highly structured observational approach. We're in the homes of the residents, not just a facility. To truly understand what is happening in residents lives we have had to go far beyond traditional ethnographic research. We've become part of the residents lives in a way that allows them to open up to us about the most intimate and profound aspects of their lives.
With help from team member Stephanie Ewens, phase I of the NHoF lab included the creation of a body of photographic work that captures not only the experiences of everyday life at Tockwotton Home, but the spirit and personalities of the people living there.
Nursing Home of the Future Initiative Completes First Phase
With the current elder care system in peril, and with millions of babyboomers on their way to old age, most experts agree that we must fundamentally redesign our country’s approach to elder care. The Business Innovation Factory’s Nursing Home of the Future (NHoF) initiative began when members of the BIF community galvanized around the idea that we must work harder (and faster) to design new approaches for providing cost and care-effective support services to our elders.
Field Reports from NHoF Phase I
When the Business Innovation Factory set out to create a real-world laboratory for developing and testing new solutions for improving elder care, we knew it would be challenging.
What we didn't know was how deeply personal and inspiring the process of building the Nursing Home of the Future laboratory would be. One of the most stunning components of this effort has been the intimacy and authenticity of the team’s interactions with the residents.
Public Presentation on the NHoF
The BIF team held their first public briefing on the NHoF project on Wednesday, September 10 at BIF headquarters in Providence. The audience was very diverse and included experts such as Richard Besdine (director of Brown University’s Gerontology Center); administrators from local nursing homes, aging citizens interested in the project, representatives from Tockwotton, and representatives from other BIF member and partner companies. Approximately 40 people participated in the briefing.
Not Enough Time in the Day
The first day I met Ruth Gardiner, she said to me, “I’m only 98…and I’m part of the young club around here”. She asked me “Did you know there’s a lady who’s 104 years old on this floor?” Ruth wore a bright red cashmere sweater with pearls to accompany it and she had just visited the salon downstairs. Going to the salon, receiving manicures, and hand massages are regular activities at Tockwotton Home.
Additional Observation on Personal Care Exploration
Wound care and Infectious Disease prevention in the Nursing Home are issues which may be state regulated and inspected, much like bedsores and medication regimens. At Tockwotton the government oversight of these issues is irrelevant as the Home’s self-imposed standard of care is far higher than state, which has an allowance for a limited amount of bedsores, while Tockwotton would accept none. In the instance of roommates coming down with infectious diseases the ill resident uses the private bathroom while the other may use a commode or the common bathroom. Some illnesses must also be reported, in some instances requiring staff and other residents to take preventative meds as for the flu.
Nighttime at Tockwotton Home
I’m uneasy about staying overnight at Tockwotton Home’s nursing wing tonight. Going into a place that has locks to keep people in is unsettling. And even though I go in knowing that when I want to leave I can, just knowing that no one else can causes me to pause.
