Assess Hospital Dementia Capable Communities Toolkit

Hospitals can play a critical role in a dementia capable community, from early identification to medical management and patient and family/caregiver education regarding medical care of the disease and community resources.

The information gathered here is part of the full Community Needs Assessment. Each survey question is cross-referenced to the full assessment. These questions should be investigated by a champion within the health care community—a physician interested in being dementia capable is ideal. This person would benefit from understanding the medical management for dementia.

Assessing the Hospitals for a Dementia Capable Community

Review the information and resourceson the ACT on Alzheimer’s Dementia Capable Communities Toolkit website related to the health care community.

-Diagnosis, Medical Management & Pharmacological Treatment

-Information & Education for Patients & their Families

Develop a list of all of the hospitals in your community.
Prioritize and determine which hospitals to contact.
Contact the administration office at each hospital to determine who would be appropriate to answer each question for their hospital.
Keep track of your data sources, including who you interview and their responses to the questions in your interview.
Create a code for each interviewee, using the sector abbreviation, plus a number. For example, hospital interviewees would be H1 for first interviewee, H2 for second, etc.
Use the Community Information Gathering - Survey/Call Script to introduce yourself and the project.
Conduct interviews.
After your information gathering, organize the data and summarize it in the Synthesizing the Assessment – Team Worksheet, which will be the basis for how your community rates its current level of activity and prioritizes what to focus on.

Interviewer/Your Name______Date of Interview______

Community Member/Interviewee ______Interviewee Code: H

Name______

Title______

Address______

Phone______

Email______

Have you had personal experience with someone with dementia?☐Yes ☐No

Impairment Identification & Care - Section M

Identifying people with cognitive impairment is the first step toward diagnosis. Early diagnosis is important because it allows individuals and their families to plan for the future. Having a medical diagnosis opens the door to a number of resources that might not be available otherwise.

Has your hospitaltrained its staff in early detection of dementia and caring for people with dementia?Rate each setting on a scale from 0 to 4, with 4 being the highest. (Q28 in
full assessment)

Health care organizations / Training type / Rate whether training is provided
Never Sometimes Always NotApplicable
Hospital (e.g., physicians, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, nurses, nurse aides, social workers) / Early detection / ☐0 ☐1 ☐2 ☐3 ☐4 ☐NA
Caring for / ☐0 ☐1 ☐2 ☐3 ☐4 ☐NA

Note: This question is not intended to account for all continuing medical education (CME) pursued by individuals, although that may be the primary means of dementia education in private practices.

Level of Current Activity / Priority for Action
Indicate your level of agreement with this statement: Our community adequately trains itshospital staff in early detection of dementia and caring for people with dementia. / Indicate your level of agreement with this statement: Training hospital staff in early detection of dementia and caring for people with dementia should be a priority for action in our community.
1.Strongly disagree
2.Disagree
3.Neither agree or disagree
4.Agree
5.Strongly agree
0.Do not know / 1.Strongly disagree
2.Disagree
3.Neither agree or disagree
4.Agree
5.Strongly agree
0.Do not know

What opportunities do you see for training hospitalstaff in early detection of dementia and caring for people with dementia? What barriers do you see?

Information & Education for People with Dementia & Their Families - Section O

People diagnosed with dementia—and their caregivers—need education about the disease and care needs. They also need information about services and resources available in the community. These questions address how your health care organization supports people with dementia once they
are diagnosed.

Once someone is diagnosed with dementia, is dementia-specific follow up information and education about the medical care of the condition provided to both the patient and family caregivers or helpers? Rate on a scale from 0 to 4, with 4 being the highest. (Q32 in full assessment)

Rate how frequently dementia-specific medical care education is provided to:
Health care provider / Patients
Never Sometimes Always / Caregivers
Never Sometimes Always / Not Applicable
Hospital staff (nurses, hospitalists/physicians, social workers) / ☐0 ☐1 ☐2 ☐3 ☐4 / ☐0 ☐1 ☐2 ☐3 ☐4 / ☐NA
Level of Current Activity / Priority for Action
Indicate your level of agreement with this statement:Our community adequately provides dementia-specific follow up information and education about the medical care of the condition to both the patient and family, once someone is diagnosed with dementia. / Indicate your level of agreement with this statement:Increasing providing dementia-specific follow up information and education about the medical care of the condition to both the patient and family should be a priority for action in our community.
1.Strongly disagree
2.Disagree
3.Neither agree or disagree
4.Agree
5.Strongly agree
0.Do not know / 1.Strongly disagree
2.Disagree
3.Neither agree or disagree
4.Agree
5.Strongly agree
0.Do not know

What opportunities do you seefor hospitals to provide dementia-specific follow up information and education about the medical care of the condition? What barriers do you see?

Once someone is diagnosed with dementia, is non-medical information about services and supports available in our community provided to both the patient and family caregivers or helpers? Rate on a scale from 0 to 4, with 4 being the highest. (Q33 in full assessment)

Rate how frequently information about non-medical services and supports
is provided to:
Health care provider / Patients
Never Sometimes Always / Caregivers
Never Sometimes Always / Not Applicable
Hospital staff (nurses, hospitalists/physicians, social workers) / ☐0 ☐1 ☐2 ☐3 ☐4 / ☐0 ☐1 ☐2 ☐3 ☐4 / ☐NA
Level of Current Activity / Priority for Action
Indicate your level of agreement with this statement:Our community adequately provides non-medical information about services and supports available to both the patient and family caregivers or helpers, once someone is diagnosed with dementia / Indicate your level of agreement with this statement:Increasing providing non-medical information about services and supports available in our community to both the patient and family caregivers or helpers should be a priority for action in our community.
1.Strongly disagree
2.Disagree
3.Neither agree or disagree
4.Agree
5.Strongly agree
0.Do not know / 1.Strongly disagree
2.Disagree
3.Neither agree or disagree
4.Agree
5.Strongly agree
0.Do not know

What opportunities do you see forhospitals to providenon-medical information about services and supports available in our community? What barriers do you see?

General

Would you be interested in playing a greater role to help us implement this project in our community?

Suggestions:

-Serve on a coalition

-Serve on a task force or committee

-Public endorsement/testimonial

-Appoint a person to work on the project

-Donate resources, i.e., meeting space, advertising, personnel, funds, etc.

Could you suggest other organizations/groups in our community who could take part in this project?

Are there any other suggestions or ideas that you can give me as we prepare to get this
project started?

Are there any questions you would like to ask me?

Thank you for your time and support.

Would you like me to be in touch with you again to let you know how the project is progressing and how you can best help to ensure <community> is becoming more dementia capable?

☐Yes ☐No

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