News Releases

USM College of Nursing and Health Professions Pilot Program Reduces Hospitalization Rates and Health Care Costs

August 8, 2007

PORTLAND, ME – Elderly Americans in Maine and elsewhere have a high rate of re-hospitalization, often due to insufficient coordination and communication among health care providers. A pilot program has been launched to reduce re-hospitalization rates and health care costs for elderly Mainers.

The Care Transitions Intervention (CTI) Model -- as the pilot is known -- is a program to help the elderly as they move from care settings, such as hospitals, rehabilitation or skilled facilities, back into the home. Nurses aid the transition by hospital visits, home visits, and telephone monitoring. The focus of this intervention is to provide patients with education to manage their chronic illness and medications, and to teach them about red flags to watch for. The nurses also help patients become more involved in communication with health care providers.

Graduate students in the University of Southern Maine’s Clinical Nurse Specialist Program, in collaboration with Maine Medical Center, HomeHealth Visiting Nurses and MaineHealth Eldercare Services, researched the issue and proposed the pilot program. It is the first of its kind in Maine.

For more information, please contact USM graduate nursing students Rosemary Unnold or Victoria Erickson, two nurses currently working at HomeHealth. They both can be reached at 800-660-4867, or at runnold@homehealth.org and verickson@homehealth.org.

For help arranging an interview, please contact Bob Caswell or Judie O’Malley of USM Public Affairs at 780-4200, caswell@usm.maine.edu, omalley@usm.maine.edu.

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