UIndy’s Center for Aging & Community, known for its work on nursing-home healthcare initiatives, has a key role in an Indiana University-led project that just received a multi-million dollar federal grant.
Miller
CAC Executive Director Ellen Miller serves on the project team for OPTIMISTIC, which stands for Optimizing Patient Transfers, Impacting Medical Quality and Improving Symptoms: Transforming Institutional Care. In a four-year effort, IU and Regenstrief Institute clinician-researchers will work with 19 central Indiana nursing facilities to improve care, reduce hospitalizations and increase access to palliative care for long-term nursing facility residents.
CAC will coordinate all training for participating nurses and nursing home personnel. Also, Dr. Anne Thomas, dean of UIndy’s School of Nursing, will co-chair the OPTIMISTIC advisory board.
Thomas
Indiana is one of seven states where such pilot projects are being funded by the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. According to the project announcement, 45 percent of hospitalizations of people receiving Medicare or Medicaid nursing facility services could be avoided. The cost of these unnecessary transfers and hospitalizations was estimated between $7 billion and $8 billion in 2011.
Read the announcement here.
