Therapy & Practice

Can focusing on prevention be profitable?

A retirement home in Brunnadern has set itself the goal of providing greater quality of life and opening up a new source of income with prevention. Read the interview with Roman Strübi, Manager of the Liebenau Neckertal retirement home, about how the centre is successfully putting nursing training into practice.

The Liebenau Neckertal retirement home in Brunnadern equipped four of the home’s five residential groups with exercise equipment from Dividat worth CHF 90,000 in 2021. Residents are benefitting from greater independence and quality of life, and the home was able to recoup the cost of the equipment within a very short time. With this innovation, inpatient long-term care is providing a shining example of how a shift from care to prevention can be achieved. It also demonstrates how this can work economically and even generate additional income over a longer period of time. Home Manager Roman Strübi and Head of Nursing Miro Zuparic are thrilled:

“Right from the start, it was important for us to recoup the cost of the equipment and to promote the attractiveness of the home, along with the very positive effect for the residents (increasing and improving strength, coordination, balance, cognition, concentration, endurance, positive body awareness). Due to annual measurements and assessments of quality indicators, we had set ourselves the goal of reducing falls and promoting independent mobility. Both have improved significantly within a year.”

Mr Strübi, we at Dividat have been campaigning for a long time for more relevance to be assigned to prevention. So far, however, it has often not been possible to implement a concept in such a way that it pays off economically. Can you explain to us how you achieved this?

Roman Strübi: At the start, it was no easy task for us, and we had to handle things in a highly structured way. The will of the staff to offer something special to the residents during the pandemic, as well as the location of the training equipment, which is at the heart of the action, played key roles in this success. It is a matter of see and be seen for the people, and now the training has become an integral part of the daily routine. We have managed to get about 50% of all residents using the Dividat exercise equipment, six times a week, sometimes even twice a day.

How can RAI/BESA be used to document training?

Roman Strübi: The Dividat Senso and the training equipment are excellent for use as long-term care training. In the RAI-NH Manual version 2.0 under 3. Long-term care training, page 169, Appendix A MDS 01_2016, Initial Assessment page 13, the possibilities for documenting and billing the training via RAI are explained. Two long-term care training sessions per day (continence, toileting, mobility, training devices, etc.), at least six days per week, result in a level increase of 1–2 per resident. For refinancing, at least 1x Dividat and e.g. 1x toilet training per day are sufficient. This is brilliant and all in all, makes it a very worthwhile investment!

What does the documentation look like and what were the responses from health insurance providers/local councils?

Roman Strübi: The aims and measures in long-term care planning have to be comprehensible. Health insurers accepted the level increases after this review. It is also nice for the home to see the residents becoming easier to look after when they have more movement in general. Twice a year, an assessment is performed on all residents and the doctor signs off on the long-term care training. Our external physiotherapists with a doctor’s prescription also use the equipment together with the residents.

Who carries out the training?

Roman Strübi: Planning the use of our training equipment is discussed internally with the kinesthetics supervisors. The training is accompanied by carers. However, this is not a problem for us because the devices are fully integrated into everyday life, i.e. 2-3 metres away for the carers. A central location is essential for a successful concept and contact persons need to be defined. There is a tendency to exercise more in the morning so that residents can participate in different activities spread throughout the day. One residential group has three different Dividat devices (THERA-Trainer, StepOne, Dividat Senso), while the other three residential groups each have one THERA-Trainer and one Dividat Senso, with a screen (Dividat Mile) always included in all residential groups. It is lovely to see the equipment being so well used.

Dividat is a spin-off company of ETH

The team combines expertise from the fields of movement science, neuroscience, neuropsychology and informatics to provide high-quality training and therapy concepts. This knowledge is complemented by constant cooperation with leading international research institutions.

Dividat AG
Neuhofstrasse 14 | 8834 Schindellegi | CH
Tel: +41 44 586 88 34 | www.dividat.ch | info@dividat.ch

Roman Strübi
Manager of the Liebenau Neckertal retirement home