We believe very strongly that interprofessional teams provide the best care, especially for older people with serious multiple chronic conditions. In direct care as a geriatric social worker, I worked very closely with physicians, psychiatrists, nurses, physical therapists, as well as home health aides and family caregivers. It never occurred…
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Last week the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology issued an important briefing document on health IT in Long-term and Post Acute Care (LTPAC). It details a host of interesting experiments being undertaken around the country to try to make health information available across sites of care…
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This past weekend I sat with some of the top leaders in geriatrics and heard them rail against usual care for older adults by specialists and non-geriatrically trained generalists. They complained bitterly about oncologists who wildly overtreat the frail and yet undertreat the vigorous, cardiac procedures done without patient benefit…
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In December 2012, the Hartford Trustees endorsed a final proposal to the Gerontological Society of America (GSA) creating the National Hartford Centers of Gerontological Nursing Excellence. This new collaborative entity consists of the eight Hartford centers of geriatric nursing excellence, their sister center at the University of Oklahoma funded by…
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Chris Langston, right, with his younger sister Anne, mother Adair, and grandmother Nancy Imber, circa late 1970s. Did someone with geriatric expertise make a difference in your family's life? There are just four more weeks left in the John A. Hartford Foundation’s new Heroes of Geriatric Care story contest…
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A workgroup convened by the Alzheimer's Association has come up with a useful tool to help clinicians detect cognitive impairment during the Medicare Annual Wellness Visit. This is a great example of one of our new mottos at the John A. Hartford Foundation: “Putting geriatrics expertise to work.” We’ve spent…
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Ezra Klein, a prominent Washington Post blogger whose work I generally respect and enjoy, recently put up a post (Feds spend $7 on elderly for every $1 on kids) on federal spending on young versus older Americans. His post was a reanalysis and interpretation of a recent Urban Institute report…
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March 2nd marked what would have been Dr. Seuss’ 109th birthday (Theodor Seuss Geisel, Born: 1904, Died: 1991). I have always been a big Seuss fan, but even more so after my 7-year-old son recently checked out Dr. Seuss’ You’re Only Old Once! A Book for Obsolete Children from his…
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Dr. Julie Bynum There’s been a great deal of policy and public attention to hospice and hospice care recently, including the bankruptcy and closure of a large hospice in San Diego over inappropriately long stays and possible overcharging of the Medicare program. But I think this is the wrong…
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An old medical text from the Qing Dynasty. What does China know about the importance of social workers that our own government doesn’t? That question came to mind after I read an op-ed in The New York Times last week titled No Country for Old Age by Mark W…
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