Assessing the impacts of community-based health care policies and programs for older adults.
This article presents a framework for evaluating long-term care policies and programs to determine how well community-based programs benefit the older adult population. Equity, accessibility, quality, and efficiency are identified as core criteria for implementing and evaluating long-term care policy. Special problems with conducting process and/or outcome evaluation of community-based programs are noted, and findings of evaluation research on community-based health care programs are reviewed. Most previous research indicates that community-based health programs for older adults are not a substitute for institutional care and do not reduce either informal caregiving or ambulatory medical services. The article concludes with policy implications.
Wan
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Medical College of Virginia, Virginia Commonwealth University.
Ferraro
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D000368:Aged; D003153:Community Health Services / Q000592:standards*; D006291:Health Policy / Q000592:standards; D006302:Health Services Research / Q000379:methods; D006801:Humans; D008134:Long-Term Care / Q000592:standards*; D010043:Outcome and Process Assessment, Health Care; D015397:Program Evaluation / Q000592:standards*; D011785:Quality Assurance, Health Care / Q000458:organization & administration*; D014481:United States