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New AGS National Program to Help Improve Outcomes

Highland Hospital Associate Chief of Medicine co-lead in development of plan

Wednesday, January 25, 2017

Daniel Ari Mendelson, M.S., M.D., FACP, AGSF, CMD, Associate Chief of Medicine at Highland Hospital, Professor of Medicine, Division of Geriatrics at the University of Rochester School of Medicine & Dentistry has played a key role in developing a new national program that will improve care for older adults hospitalized with hip fractures.

With $1.4 million in support from the John A. Hartford Foundation of New York, the American Geriatrics Society (AGS) will launch a new national program that positions geriatricians and geriatrics-trained clinicians as co-managers with orthopedic surgeons to improve care and health outcomes, while lowering costs, for older adults with hip fractures.

Geriatrics-orthopedics co-management incorporates a geriatrics approach to care as soon as possible after an older person enters the hospital for a hip fracture, helping to identify and reduce the risk for harmful events ranging from falls and delirium to infections. The model has been shown to reduce length of stay, re-admissions, and most complications, and to increase an older person’s chances of going home directly from the hospital, often resulting in improved function and independence.

Highland physicians have been experiencing success with this concept for more than 12 years.  Highland’s Geriatric Fracture Center, led by Mendelson, was developed in 2004 as a Center of Excellence where orthopaedic surgeons and geriatricians work together to ensure that geriatric patients with fractures have the best surgical and post-surgical care and outcomes.

“Highland is a proven leader in Geriatric care and especially in caring for older adults with hip fractures,” said Cindy Becker, Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Highland Hospital. “We are proud of Dr. Mendelson’s groundbreaking work and honored that he is sharing Highland’s successful care model with other hospitals across the nation.”

Dr. Mendelson and three other project leads will work with early-adopter sites to:

  • Create and test training, evaluation, and implementation tools for the co-management program;
  • Assist participating hospitals with measuring success and sharing lessons learned; and
  • Provide ongoing consultation, networking opportunities, and additional co-management resources as the program is expanded to a network of hospitals and health systems around the country.

“This initiative will have a truly significant impact on improving care across the country,” said Dr. Mendelson. “National dissemination of the geriatrics-orthopedic model coupled with AGS plans for additional specialty specific co-managed programs will change how geriatric principles move from theory to practice across care settings.”

Hip fractures hospitalize more than 260,000 older adults annually, and could hospitalize 500,000 older adults each year by 2040. They are the third most costly diagnosis in the U.S., totaling more than $18 billion in 2012.

Media Contact

Wendy Halik

(585) 341-9633

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