TY - JOUR
T1 - Geriatrics educational outreach
T2 - A tale of three GRECCS
AU - Clark, Elizabeth
AU - Fitzgerald, James T.
AU - Griffith, Jennifer
AU - Weir, Charlene
N1 - Funding Information:
The Age QI Program has resulted in the successful implementation of EMR-based geriatrics QI projects at the original participating clinics. The SLC GRECC has been funded by the VA Rural Health Program to extend AGE QI to the whole Rocky Mountain region over the next year. It also brought into sharp focus the idiosyncratic nature of IT as a vehicle for clinical change: the need for significant flexibility on the part of the program staff to match the QI project with the characteristics, needs, and resources of a specific clinic; the substantial outside clinic resource requirements for relatively small QI projects; and the reality that installation of a new IT tool is not sufficient for program success. Lessons learned included that change requires extensive work process support and integration and alignment with institutional goals.
Funding Information:
The Advanced Program in Geriatrics and Palliative Care for Frontline Primary Care Providers in VISN 3 is a collaboration between the GRECC at the JJ Peters (Bronx) VA and the Consortium of New York Geriatric Education Centers (CNYGEC) whose partners include Mount Sinai School of Medicine, Columbia University Stroud Center for Study of Quality of Life, and New York University College of Nursing. The GRECC and the CNYGEC provide joint leadership for this program. This is a major educational initiative of the CNYGEC and is HRSA funded. The program receives additional financial support from the VISN, and technical support from the GRECC and the Bronx and Manhattan VAMCs. The course developers, like their counterparts in VISNs 19 and 11, employed a written needs assessment, supplemented by focus groups with VISN primary care providers. The assessment included preferences for topics, teaching modalities, scheduling, and location. Although this program does not entail a QI project, its objectives in terms of geriatrics and palliative care education are very broad. Participants are expected to be able to identify tools for physical and cognitive functional assessment for use in the primary care setting, describe the role of palliative care in caring for older adults with serious chronic medical conditions including dementia, develop strategies to assess and manage dementia in the primary care setting and treat accompanying chronic conditions, identify local institutional interdisciplinary teams including community resources and how they may promote optimal geriatric care, and recognize the impact of culture and health literacy on the health care of older adults.
Funding Information:
This program is ongoing and is continually being refocused to address current needs. VISN 11 requested and funded the program’s adaptation for use in outpatient clinics and inpatient facilities at VISN 11 medical centers. These initiatives have had mixed success; programs at sites that have stable leadership and those in which enhanced geriatrics care is a local strategic goal have flourished, whereas other programs have struggled. For the next 5 years, as for the last 4 years, the program is a funded project of the GECM’s grant award. Future activities include administering a new CBOC needs assessment to determine topic areas for geriatrics education programs, and the development of a train-the-trainer program teaching VA teams to provide this and similar geriatric training.
Funding Information:
The Age QI Program in VISN 19 represents collaboration among three Utah health care institutions: (a) the Salt Lake City (SLC) VA, (b) the University of Utah School of Medicine, and (c) Intermountain Healthcare (a nonprofit health system). The program receives funding from the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation. The SLC GRECC provided the leadership for the project. The major objectives of the program are to (a) teach essentials of geriatric assessment to primary care providers and staff and (b) develop and implement sustainable geriatrics quality improvement (QI) interventions using the local electronic medical record system at each participating clinic.
PY - 2011/1
Y1 - 2011/1
N2 - Current geriatrics workforce projections indicate that clinicians who care for adults will need basic geriatrics knowledge and skills to address the geriatric syndromes and issues that limit functional independence and complicate medical management. This is most evident for the clinicians caring for veterans in the Department of Veterans Affairs hospitals and clinics nationwide. Geriatric Research, Education and Clinical Centers (GRECCs), whose staff are geriatric-content experts, have developed a number of programs to tackle this daunting educational task. This article introduces three different programs designed and implemented by GRECCs to train currently practicing health care providers in the Veterans Health Administration medical clinics. It also describes the successes and lessons learned from these three programs.
AB - Current geriatrics workforce projections indicate that clinicians who care for adults will need basic geriatrics knowledge and skills to address the geriatric syndromes and issues that limit functional independence and complicate medical management. This is most evident for the clinicians caring for veterans in the Department of Veterans Affairs hospitals and clinics nationwide. Geriatric Research, Education and Clinical Centers (GRECCs), whose staff are geriatric-content experts, have developed a number of programs to tackle this daunting educational task. This article introduces three different programs designed and implemented by GRECCs to train currently practicing health care providers in the Veterans Health Administration medical clinics. It also describes the successes and lessons learned from these three programs.
KW - AGE QI
KW - CME
KW - Community-based outpatient clinics
KW - Continuing professional education
KW - GRECC
KW - Geriatrics
KW - Primary care providers
KW - Veterans Administration
KW - Veterans Affairs
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=79951870985&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=79951870985&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/02701960.2011.550218
DO - 10.1080/02701960.2011.550218
M3 - Article
C2 - 21347933
AN - SCOPUS:79951870985
SN - 0270-1960
VL - 32
SP - 93
EP - 106
JO - Gerontology and Geriatrics Education
JF - Gerontology and Geriatrics Education
IS - 1
ER -