A treatment program to successfully reverse urinary incontinence in many of the nations's one million incontinent nursing home patients has recently been validated in experimental studies funded by the National Institutes of Health. Staff management and training procedures have also been evaluated which document that nursing homes can successfully implement the treatment procedures with existing staff resources. The entire incontinence assessment, treatment, and staff management technology has only been effectively implemented with extensive involvement by research staff. This grant will evaluate how to cost effectively transfer this technology to the nation's 25,000 nursing homes. Written program materials, training procedures and computer software to facilitate program management will prepared and tested in one nursing home. The goal will be to successfully implement the system with less than one week of on-site involvement by consulting staff. The impact of the program on patient incontinence measures and the program implementation costs will be documented. Thus, the present project will result in the identification and development of materials and routines for converting a scientifically validated incontinence technology into a practically usable for that has commercial distribution potential.
