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AMDA Medical Director of the Year Nominees, 2013

2013; Elsevier BV; Volume: 14; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/j.carage.2013.02.008

2377-066X

Joanne Kaldy,

Patient Satisfaction in Healthcare

As always, AMDA received many outstanding nominations for its annual Medical Director of the Year award. An interdisciplinary panel assessed nominees on their contributions and accomplishments in long-term care medicine—specifically, their clinical expertise, contributions to staff education, leadership, and community involvement. The award recipient will be announced during the Opening General Session of AMDA Long Term Care Medicine – 2013 on Friday, March 22. An article about the winner will appear in the April issue of Caring for the Ages. Following are highlights from the nominations of this year's group. ▸ Golden Living Centers Bessemer, Alabama Dr. Barthold is a hands-on leader who regularly coordinates town hall–style meetings that bring Golden Living leadership teams and medical directors together to share thoughts and ideas. He works to recruit new physicians to long-term care, and he regularly shares his passion for elder care with colleagues and others through networking activities and meetings. Dr. Barthold has established a direct-communication approach to working with many clinical, administrative, and operational staff at several medical and office locations. He currently is working to integrate palliative care medicine and short–term-patient care programs to decrease rehospitalization rates. ▸ Friendship Health and Rehabilitation ▸ Eastwood Assisted Living ▸ Brandon Oaks Retirement Community Roanoke, Virginia Dr. Boshra has an excellent understanding of licensure regulations for LTC facilities and a keen understanding of chronic medical and administrative challenges. She also has expanded her experience to better assess patients of different cultures and in different settings and is well known for working with a diverse patient populations. She also is a coinvestigator on a National Institutes of Health award, “Maintaining Resistance Training in Older Prediabetic Adults: A Therapeutic Approach.” Additionally, she has conducted studies on wound healing and quality improvement for the care of urinary tract infections. Dr. Boshra mentors fellows and encourages their research studies. ▸ Avalon Care Center–Chowchilla Chowchilla, California Dr. Brodie is committed to enabling teams to work together to ensure quality care and streamlined care transitions. He holds regular education-oriented dinner meetings that include pharmacists, specialists, and others. He enjoys educating nurses and other staff on topics such as urinary incontinence, pressure ulcers, antipsychotics, and fall prevention. He is known as an approachable and respectful leader who also is a good listener. ▸ Evercare Florida/United Health Group Optum Division Oldsmar, Florida Dr. James shares his vision of excellent patient care and engages all staff in identifying opportunities to improve programs and services. He makes himself readily available for problem solving, even after hours and on weekends and holidays. He promotes partnerships with primary care providers, facility medical directors, and multiple stakeholders at all levels. For example, when practitioners expressed a need for information about intravenous fluid selection, Dr. James prepared a presentation to answer their questions. A champion of clinical practice standards, Dr. James has worked on standards in areas such as treatment of urinary tract infection, treatment of facility-acquired pneumonia, and congestive heart failure. He also developed after-hours call guidelines for practitioners to ensure timely and appropriate collaboration between nurses and primary care physicians. ▸ Menorah Manor St. Petersburg, Florida Dr. LeVine developed and supervises a clinical credentialing process and has cultivated a large private medical staff. He is active in medical-staff recruitment, oversight, education, and retention, including specialists such as psychiatrists, dermatologists, podiatrists, and dentists. He leads a team of geriatric professionals that provides comprehensive outpatient assessments of individuals experiencing memory or behavioral changes. Always available to answer questions and share his expertise, Dr. LeVine also provides staff education on topics such as dementia, end-of-life issues, palliative care, and ethics. He is a clinical preceptor for the Menorah Manor geriatric rotation and conducts individual coaching with staff. ▸ Rock Creek Manor ▸ Thomas Circle Washington, D.C. Dr. Oboite mentors new physicians and nurse practitioners as team members and has developed a multidisciplinary rounding and communication process to maximize teamwork and quality care. He has educated facility staff about improving care transitions, and he developed continuity experience in home-based primary care in a facility's independent living and assisted living sections. He has worked with staff and administrators to improve transitions procedures for subacute patients. His efforts have resulted in a 95% decrease in emergency department transfers from the subacute unit. In addition, he arranged a multidisciplinary wound rounds. Ultimately, his efforts led to a deficiency-free survey for a facility with a challenging inner city population. ▸ Grace Hospice Topeka, Kansas Dr. Rider is a leading advocate for palliative care programs. He developed an innovative pediatric palliative care program and was instrumental in creating a wound-care coalition that involves quarterly meetings with local wound-care nurses to mentor and educate others. Committed to teaching, he has provided wound-care education to hospice and nursing home staff, and he offers monthly staff in-services on a wide variety of topics. Through education programs and best practice implementation, he is leading the way on decreasing antipsychotic use in nursing homes. As a volunteer leader, Dr. Rider is president of the Kansas Medical Directors Association and past president of the local Rotary Club. ▸ Four Seasons of Dayton Bellbrook, Ohio Dr. Sobol organized a palliative care focus for nurse practitioners, including an interactive educational component. He also worked with the advance-care planning team to educate nurse practitioners (NP) on end-of-life care and prognostic skills, and he worked with NP managers to review case studies and identify optimal care practices. In addition, he established an evidence-based practice NP group to complete retrospective data analysis. A dedicated problem solver, Dr. Sobol analyzed potential challenges with implementation of novel videoconferencing for mental health counseling of nursing home residents. In addition to educating staff on a wide array of topics, he has presented programs on benefits and criteria for hospice to family groups. ▸ Luthern Home of Southbury Southbury, CT Among his many duties, Dr. Taweh is Director of Wound Services at Luthern Home. He is also a clinical instructor at the Yale School of Nursing and Quinnipiac University School of Nursing. An active community volunteer, he is Founder/President/Medical Director of the Kevin Community Center in Newtown, CT, which provides medical services to an underserved population. In addition, he is Director of Medical Outreach which coordinates medical conferencing with local organizations like Regional Hospice and United Way. ▸ Strong Health Geriatrics Group Rochester, New York Dr. Vivenzio has changed the standard of care in his nursing homes and has proposed routine placement of nurse practitioners and physician assistants in nursing homes. He organized facility-based committees to ensure patient safety and a high quality of medical care. Bringing structure to the medical director's role, he taught other physician leaders the art of medical direction, including how to be an advocate for both medical providers and facilities. He was able to take facilities with past violations and turn them into quality homes. In addition to implementing systems, processes, and committees, he instituted clinical pathways to enable team members to better manage patients and improve quality of care. Educating staff has been a priority for Dr. Vivenzio, and he is known for innovative teaching activities. He also is committed to encouraging and mentoring young physicians, and he precepts geriatric fellows for the University of Rochester Medical Center.