As many of us know, last April the Institute of Medicine (IOM) released a report called Retooling for an Aging America: Building the Health Care Workforce. Because we helped commission it, we were of course very relieved when the report came out with strong recommendations for enhancing the geriatric competence of the entire health care workforce; increasing the recruitment and retention of geriatric specialists and caregivers; and improving the delivery of health care. These recommendations validated the Foundation’s work over the last 20 years. (I think there were 27 separate approving references to Foundation-funded projects--but who’s counting.)
Since it has been over a year since the report came out, it’s time for an impact status report. On Thursday, May 11, the IOM held the last of three regional roll-out meetings in Chicago, IL. Like the previous two meetings in Washington, DC, and Los Angeles, CA, it was a fabulous lineup of speakers exploring the important issues the report raised. These included the woeful state of health professions education in geriatric care and approaches to increasing competence, as well as discussion of scope of practice and the potential benefits of the emergence of new health professions not yet known.
The dissemination of the report and these meetings have helped spur the creation of some new legislation, such as Senator Kohl’s The Retooling The Healthcare Workforce For An Aging America Act, The Caring For An Aging America Act, and The Re-Aligning Care Act. Some of these ideas have been integrated into Senate Finance and Health, Education, Labor & Pensions proposals. Unfortunately, the total dollars being allocated are small compared to the role of older adults in the health system. Moreover, the penetration of these issues into the public debate has been minimal, although the recent New York Times op-ed by long-time Foundation grantee Rosanne Leipzig, MD, of Mount Sinai may suggest a crack in the ice at last.
Several groups are trying to maintain and add to the public policy momentum, including the Elder Workforce Alliance, a project of the TIDES Center that we, Atlantic Philanthropies, and 29 member organizations are funding. On June 23 the Eldercare Workforce Alliance coordinated a day of visits to legislative offices on Capital Hill along with 200-300 constituent calls and an advertisement in Roll Call. Additionally, PHI recently launched a policy web site in an effort to improve employment for direct-care workers.
If we can keep the report and its conclusions in the public consciousness, we will have a much better chance of making progress. Let us know about other efforts to leverage the Retooling for an Aging America report into significant policy changes. Also, stay tuned for Part 2 of this progress report, when we check in with how academic health professions training is responding to the IOM report…or not.