Long-term care and traumatic brain injury
The initial focus of CarePath is on traumatic brain injury as there is ample evidence
now in the medical literature that shows that the implementation of evidence-based
guidelines improves patient outcomes (reducing mortality by 50% and improving
functional outcome by 50%), while reducing acute care costs by 20%. Naturally,
improving functional outcomes would dramatically reduce long-term care costs,
often delivered through Mediciad and Medicare.
Traumatic brain injury is not only a leading cause of death and disability in the
United States for those between the ages of 1 and 45, it is also the reason for a
large percentage of the long term care in the United States. Such long term care is
not only devastating for the patients and their families who must experience it, but
for the states and the federal government who must fund it.
Because of this, CarePath is now working with several states and many of
the leading trauma hospitals on the implementation of evidence-based
treatment guidelines on behalf of traumatic brain injured patients in order
to dramatically improve patient outcomes and reduce the need for long
term care.