Northwest Medical Center and the City of Margate teamed up to establish the first Advocacy and Transitional Care Management (ATCM) pilot program in South Florida. The program is designed to assist patients of Northwest Medical Center with a successful transition to the community post discharge.
In addition, this program will help decrease the number of days older adults unnecessarily stay in-house due to the unavailability or ineligibility for long-term care or independent living support services and increase the knowledge of home and community based senior services. The ATCM was launched by the United Way of NE Florida at Baptist Hospital in Jacksonville in 2005, in 2007 ATCM was expanded to Shands Hospital, and in 2009 Northwest Medical Center is the first South Florida hospital to replicate the Pilot Program. Northwest Medical Centers roles and responsibilities will include; but are not limited to; designating a hospital liaison for the ATCM program to coordinate in-services and communication, allow Elder Care Advocate (ECA) to participate in future Case Management in-services or staff meetings, assist in coordinating a public awareness campaign within the hospital campus (other related departments, medical office building personnel), identify patients who may benefit from pilot program and referring patients to the Elder Care Advocate (ECA), and ensure that the ECA is aware of a senior in critical need of community support services. In order to qualify for this program, the patient profile must meet the following criteria: must be 60 years of age or older, is scheduled to be discharged to their home and not to a Hospice, Nursing Home or an Assisted Living Facility, and is a resident of Broward County. Programs are administered by the City of Margate and supported under an agreement with the Florida Department of Elder Affairs and the Area Agency on Aging of Broward County, Inc., through the Older Americans Act of 1965, as amended and Floridas Community Care for the Elderly. Matching funds are provided locally through donations and contributions with assistance by the Seniors Foundation of NW Broward, Inc.
