JAHF and NAGEC Meet to Plan New Strategies
The John A. Hartford Foundation (JAHF) and the National Association of Geriatric Education Centers (NAGEC) recently convened an intensive one-day strategic planning session with twenty key representatives from around the nation. Participants included leaders in geriatrics and geriatrics education, palliative medicine, nursing, public health, planning, and public policy, as well as the Hartford Foundation’s executive staff. Meeting at Foundation headquarters, the group shared experiences in their fields and generated ideas to enhance and improve the work of the Geriatric Education Centers (GEC). The result was a decision to move in new directions.
In his opening remarks, the Foundation’s Program Director, Christopher Langston, PhD, set the tone: “We have to look at the big picture,” he said. Let’s face it—available monies are greatly diminished when compared to ten years ago. We have to develop non-financial powers. What do I mean by this? I mean convening people; developing new synergies, ideas, and plans; and identifying how the various sectors of society can work together. We must work to determine where our interests and missions intersect and then be able to move forward to create partnerships in new places.”
The meeting revolved around three broad areas: developing partnerships, conducting outcome evaluations, and retooling for an aging America. The morning session included participant speakers, who gave concise topic summaries. Langston provided an overview of the Institute of Medicine’s report, Retooling for an Aging America. Roseanne Leipzig, MD, PhD, of the Brookdale Department of Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine, presented a brief survey of the geriatric education initiative. Janet Frank, DrPH, of the David Geffin School of Medicine at UCLA, discussed developing partnerships to extend GEC. Julia Hannum-Rose, PhD, Professor of Medicine and Palliative Care, Case at MHMC, spoke about current NTACC resources in support of GECs.
Participants then divided into three breakout discussion groups to confer about their assigned issues and develop recommendations for strategic next steps. At the end of the day, everyone reconvened, and group leaders reported the results of their deliberations. These included the following recommendations to HRSA:
1. Increase focus on consensus-based competencies and evidence based practices (including innovative models of care) as the organizing principles of GEC training.
2. Have realistic expectations regarding outcome evaluation of GECs within current budget limitations and training models.
3. Increase partnership opportunities with health system partners, other federal agencies, and private programs to achieve synergies and possibly make evaluation tasks more manageable.
Suggestions to the Hartford Foundation for possible next steps included:
1. Convening a consensus conference to create interdisciplinary competencies;
2. Brokering connections to existing geriatrics education and training programs and experts; and
3. Sharing the availability of GEC educational and training offerings to healthcare organizations interested in improving quality of care.
Dr. Judith Howe, president of the National Association of Geriatric Education Centers, noted in her introductory remarks, “Our goal is to build strong partnerships between the community and the academic world, which, I firmly believe would ultimately improve the quality of health care for all older persons in America.”
Jane Potter, MD, incoming President of the National Association of Geriatric Education Centers and Director of the Geriatric Education Center at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, wrote, “This was an amazing and unusual meeting. The organizations involved brought different perspectives, while sharing the same goal of improving the health and health care of older Americans. It was refreshing to have a discussion with funders—in a context that was not linked to funding—on how we might improve the product and outcome, given static or diminishing resources.”
