Healthcare Administration -- New York State Care Act
The New York State Care (Caregiver Advise, Record and Enable) Act was implemented into law in April this year. The development and enactment of this law is geared toward having a positive effect on caregivers who assist patients and family members recover in the aftermath of hospital admission. The legislation ensures patients in healthcare facilities can assign a family caregiver and the facility provides the designated caregiver instruction and illustrations of medical tasks they are likely to offer their loved ones at home. However, the implementation of this initiative across hospitals such as Winthrop Hospital has been characterized by several challenges that could hinder its effectiveness if not addressed.
New York State Care Act and its Importance/Benefit
There are approximately 2.8 million New Yorkers who offer unpaid care to their loved ones at any given time as well as nearly 1.6 million adult New Yorkers who are discharged home from healthcare facilities annually (Kriss, 2015). Given that the value of the unpaid care provided by these caregivers in approximately $31.3 billion per year, New York State has been faced with the need for a suitable legislation that will have positive impacts on caregivers. New York Senate Health Committee Chairperson, Kemp Hannon and Assembly Member, Linda Rosenthal, sponsored the Caregiver Advise, Record and Enable (CARE) Act to help address these problems. Through their tireless work, New York State enacted the bill into law in April this year to help the many family caregivers in the state.
The New York State Care Act is a legislation that was enacted into law to help ensure family caregivers are educated and supported to offer necessary care to their loved ones at home. Through this law, a patient has the liberty to appoint an individual he/she trusts to be involved in his/her discharge process. The appointed individual will be involved in discharge teaching alongside the patient just in case there are any gaps in communication with the patient and the provider....
The individual acts as an extra ear during this process since the patient may forget instructions given by the healthcare provider. The law requires every hospital to implement the initiative through filling a form with the nurse and patient during hospital admission. Some of the medical tasks that the caregiver should receive instruction on include administering various medications, operating medical equipment, and dressing wounds (Kriss, 2015).
The effective implementation of this initiative has numerous potential benefits for the patient and hospital. The benefits of this law to the patient include improved patient outcomes or
health and decreased hospital readmission through ensuring they are provided needed care at home in an effective manner. For hospitals, this law helps in decreasing unnecessary hospital readmissions and emergency room visits, which in turn saves hospital costs. Moreover, it provides caregivers necessary
education and support to be successful in their responsibilities as well as lessens stress and
anxiety.
Literature Review
New York is among 14 states that have implemented the Caregiver Advise, Record and Enable (CARE) Act. The legislation has been found to have positive impacts on patients, caregivers, and hospitals when implemented effectively. Dianoski (2014) argues that the CARE Act is important because many people are increasingly required to care for a
family member or friend with a major health problem or concern. Based on the current situation, caregivers usually experience tremendous challenges in providing complex medical care, which in turn contributes to unnecessary hospital readmissions. This is primarily because the caregivers miss out on important information in the discharge plan developed by the healthcare team or are not properly educated to effectively handle medical tasks at home. A 2013 survey of hospital readmissions found that 72% of emergency room visits…
