April 2000 | Health Policy Center Off To Safe Start
Rebecca Goldsmith
Star-Ledger Staff
741 words
28 April 2000
The Star-Ledger Newark, NJ
FINAL
033
English
(c) 2000. The Star-Ledger. All rights reserved.
New Jersey's year-old Center for State Health Policy is making its public debut Monday by releasing the first in an ongoing series of reports examining the state's approach to important health questions.
The center draws on Rutgers University research talent to analyze rapid changes in policies coming out of New Jersey's health and senior service agencies. The purpose of the report is to provide independent feedback to improve state programs. The researchers plan to look at potentially controversial topics, such as assisted-living payments for poor patients and the regulations regarding the relative duties of nurses and aides.
But the subject of the first report - a program that helps nursing home residents find more comfortable homes with family, friends or in the community - was a safe place to start. In the past two years, the program has relocated 1,400 nursing home residents, and state officials hope to place another 2,000 in the next two years.
The Rutgers study interviewed 107 participants and found that most of them - 93 percent - liked their new situations better, and 84 percent said they could now do things to make their lives enjoyable.
''I'm glad we picked this. It's good to start on a good note. It gives everyone confidence," said William Conroy, acting deputy commissioner of Health and Senior Services.
The study on the state's Community Choice program also noted that the program's 40 counselors face obstacles including opposition from families and nursing homes and bureaucratic county welfare boards that make their efforts inefficient at times.
While most of the former nursing home residents interviewed said their quality of life has improved, a sizable minority are dissatisfied, according to the report.
One out of five said there were some activities they could do in the nursing home that they can no longer do, and almost one out of three said one of their needs is unmet in their new quarters.
The center's agenda this year also includes a look at end-of-life care in New Jersey, a report on respite care programs to relieve weary caregivers, an analysis of new nursing home alternatives, and an evaluation of the nursing home industry's reaction to so-called Eden alternative elements that incorporate pets and plants to make institutions less sterile.
Joel Cantor, director of the center, said he expects reports will eventually find fault with state policy or programs. But the issue is sensitive because the center partially depends on statecontrolled Medicaid dollars to conduct its research.
The center was created last year with $1.5 million in grants to last over three years. Half the money comes from state-controlled Medicaid dollars and half from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
"This is a little bit of an unusual relationship," Cantor said. The center wants to be the "eyes and ears" for the state government to help improve quality, but it also is beholden to the state as one of its sponsors.
"If we see something that doesn't work, we feel the obligation to say so," he said.
The state-issued news release on the report emphasized the positive results of the study as an endorsement of Community Choice and the rest of Whitman's $65 million senior initiatives. It made no mention of the report's less flattering comments.
Conroy said he would expect the center to share negative news when appropriate.
"Like any consultant, they're going to have the freedom to give their advice," he said.
But disapproval would be harder to embrace, he said.
"I guess I'm prepared for any kind of feedback to the extent it shows dissatisfaction or the lack of desired outcome," he said. But he wouldn't want it to be publicized, he said.
Minor friction between the center and the state became evident during months of back-and-forth between the two over the wording and content of the final report. And the center's release of the report, scheduled for Monday, was trumped yesterday by a state news release to news organizations.
Both agencies said the lack of coordination was simply a sign that the relationship is new.
"This is indicative of working out the kinks in a complicated arrangement. If there's a lesson here, it's just that we need to coordinate more," said Cantor.
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