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BRAVe Home Meds (Boxed, Reconciled, Assistance at Veterans Home for Medications)

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Our goal is to improve the quality of care for older Veterans while reducing costs. Currently, VA Eastern Colorado Health Care System spends more than $3 million dollars annually through Community Care for externally contracted home health RNs to fill medication pill boxes.

To address this, we’ve introduced BRAVe Home Meds, which leverages existing VA infrastructure by deploying VA-employed LPNs (Licensed Practical Nurses) to visit Veterans' homes. These visits include medication management, health assessments, med box filling, and video consultations with geriatricians. By shifting to this model, BRAVe is projected to reduce VA costs by 30-50% for the medication management service.

This innovation is emerging and worth watching as it is being assessed in early implementations. See more emerging innovations.

Adoptions:

1 in-progress

Awards and Recognition:

GRECC Clinical Innovation

Partners:

Geriatric Research Education and Clinical Center, Geriatrics and Extended Care, Office of Community Care

Metrics

  • Number of Veterans served - ECHCS provides medication management services to over 600 unique Veterans annually
  • Cost offset - BRAVe can provide medication management at lower cost to VA
  • Patient satisfaction scores - increased with BRAVe providing medication management!
  • Count and categories of Veteran connections to VA services
  • Decreased administrative burden for VA staff

Diffusion tracker

Does not include Clinical Resource Hubs (CRH)

Statuses

There are no successful adoptions for this innovation.

There are no unsuccessful adoptions for this innovation.

Multimedia

Images

The image shows several quotes from Veterans regarding the BRAVe program. Read below: 
BRAVe LPN Feedback:
“Helpful for VA nurse to call in refills to medications, then I don’t have to, I forget sometimes.” 

“Before Mercy  there were 3-4 others coming and it was a disaster. They did not know if they were coming or going, Mercy is a jewel and 110% improvement. Mercy is thoughtful and mindful.” 

BRAVe Program Feedback:

“Previously [I was] confused with pill box fills, great to be set up for a whole month.” 

“Mercy has made my family feel secure and comfortable, this is “top notch” care that exceeds my expectations, and I appreciate it because I’ve had some “duds” that just didn’t show up or had disheveled appearance.”
Above:

Quotes from Veterans regarding BRAVe staff and services (Image Credit - Lynette Kelley, NP)

There is a bar graph comparing the patient satisfaction survey scores for community care (pre-BRAVe) and VA staffed BRAVe medication management services. The scores are higher for all categories for BRAVe.
Above:

Veteran surveys show VA can do it better! (Image Credit - Lynette Kelley, NP)