Make Interventions Measurable

Your recommended care plan interventions should be measurable. This means you should specify the number of times an intervention will be carried out.

For example, let’s take the case of elderly client Tom Jefferson , who I have referred to in this blog. You the aging professional or geriatric care manager have created a dual assessment care plan to give respite to his live in woman companion and love interest 80 year old Sally Hemingway .

The measurable respite you create in your care plan is hiring a private duty home care agency. How do you make this measurable? In your care plan you state the name of the agency- that is “Good Care “. You state how many times a week Good Care will come to Mr. Jefferson’s home. You state 4 days a weeks in your care plan. You state how many hours a day the Good Care care provider will be there. Good Care will send an aide 8 hours each of the 4 days. You have made the intervention more measurable.

You need to show the family exactly how to measure whether the intervention was completed. For example the private duty care should supply charting for each day and the care provider should fill out and sign in and out on a charting page for each day of their shift. This also provides the GCM or aging professional who monitors the care of the older person a basis to review both status of the older person and whether the care provider was present.

If the care provider has come only once a week, you know you need to follow up. If the family wants to monitor the care, this approach also tells them how to measure the care. You can also measure the care by reviewing the charting when you make a home visit and by getting feedback from the family and client about how tasks were completes, and in Ms. Hemingway’s case, did her caregiver stress diminish, with this respite and help with care for Mr. Jefferson. This is how you make care plan interventions measurable.