At the Hartford Foundation we believe that the only way to deliver care that is comprehensive, efficient, and effective in meeting the complex needs of older adults is for health care professionals to work in high-functioning teams. Unfortunately, current training models do not prepare the workforce for that kind of…
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On June 1, the Foundation had the privilege of co-sponsoring (along with The Atlantic Philanthropies and The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation) a convening organized by Community Catalyst to discuss the ambitious new plans afoot to radically redesign how care is delivered and financed for the "duals"--those low income and largely…
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I’m pleased to introduce myself as the new Information Technology Officer at the John A. Hartford Foundation. Unlike many in both healthcare and IT, I entered both fields by chance. After graduating with a BA in Folklore from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, I quickly learned I was not skilled…
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We are unofficially declaring this “Hospital at Home Week.” Health care journalist Judith Graham coincidentally kicked off the festivities last week with an excellent story on the Hospital at Home model in Kaiser Health News, subsequently picked up by USA Today. And today, we celebrate publication of a paper in…
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Last week New York Magazine published an agonizing first person cover story by Michael Wolff, "A Life Worth Ending," about the terrible choices and harsh reality of illness at the end of his mother's life. The summary slug for the piece says it all: "The era of medical miracles has…
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Our social media platform, which includes Twitter, enables us to celebrate the success of our grantees, inform partners and stakeholders about our activities, share updates, and stimulate conversation with broader audiences on matters of public interest related to health and aging. Through our communications work, we also encourage our grantees…
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What is Person- and Family-Centered Care? As with many specialized terms in health care, it has its very own acronym: PFCC. It sounds very comforting, but non-specific; just the kind of lofty goal likely to get vaporized in a world of vast bureaucracies. However, PFCC has an important group on…
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Last week, several events coincided giving me hope that the fight against Alzheimer’s disease has entered a new round. While we might not see a knockout immediately, a new national plan and the work of committed champions, including Hartford partners and grantees, gives me renewed optimism that the fight can…
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Effective June 30, 2012, the Hartford-funded Building Academic Geriatric Nursing Capacity (BAGNC) Initiative will be moving. BAGNC was born and raised at the American Academy of Nursing, where it has thrived for 12 years. The evidence lies in the over 200 gero-focused pre- and post-doctoral nursing students who have taught…
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One of the most important tools in improving geriatric care developed in the last 20 years is the ACOVE framework (Assessing Care Of Vulnerable Elders)--something we’ve written about many times. In this approach, experts and evidence are used to define a floor of quality care below which would constitute bad…
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