Fall 2003

The University of Colorado Denver

Volume 6, Number 1

We are pleased to announce that the Hartford/Jahnigen Center of Excellence (COE) program at the University of Colorado Denver has received renewed funding from the John A. Hartford Foundation.

The Hartford/Jahnigen COE is funded for an additional three years at $641,170, which includes cost sharing provided by the School of Medicine Dean, Department of Medicine, Center on Aging, and Division of Health Care Policy and Research. These funds will be used to provide additional Assistant Professor Stipends, Geriatric Fellowship Stipends, and grant awards.

In July 2003, the Hartford/Jahnigen COE awarded Assistant Professor Stipends to Cari Levy, MD, and Wendolyn Gozansky, MD, MPH.

The Hartford/Jahnigen Center of
Excellence Program at UCD
has received renewed
funding from the
John A. Hartford Foundation.

Through her project entitled Nursing Home vs. Hospital: Predictors of Site of Death Among Nursing Home Residents, Dr. Levy will compare nursing home residents who die in the nursing home with those who die in the hospital, compare costs for these two populations, and identify patient and facility characteristics predictive of death in the hospital rather than the nursing home. In addition, she plans to explore determinants of having a do not resuscitate (DNR) order among skilled nursing facility residents. Dr. Levy is also completing coursework in the Certificate in Clinical Sciences Program at UCD.

Dr. Gozansky will use her second year of Hartford/Jahnigen COE Assistant Professor Stipend funding to continue her research in the area of hormone replacement therapy and its role in preventing cardiovascular disease in older women. Further information about Dr. Gozansky and her research can be found within the Profile section of this issue.

Drs. Cari Levy and
Wendolyn Gozansky have
received a Hartford/Jahnigen COE
Assistant Professor Stipends.

Three new fellows - Jennifer Brinckerhoff, MD, Rebecca Brown, MD, and Heidi Wald, MD - joined the geriatric medicine fellowship program in July 2003.

Dr. Brinckerhoff received her medical degree from the University of Virginia School of Medicine, and completed her Internal Medicine Residency at UCD. Under the geriatric medicine fellowship program, she plans to study Medicare reform and the prescription drug benefit.

Dr. Brown graduated from medical school at the University of Pennsylvania, and completed her Internal Medicine and Primary Care Residency at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Brown's primary research interest is in the area of pain management.

Dr. Wald graduated from Harvard Medical School, and completed her residency in Internal Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Wald was recently awarded a Hartford/Jahnigen COE Fellow Development Stipend for her project entitled Urinary Catheter Use in Elderly Hip Fracture Patients Discharged to Skilled Nursing Facilities.

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Under the leadership of Dr. Eric Coleman, the Interdisciplinary Team Approach to Improving Transitions Across Sites of Geriatric Care ("Care Transitions") project was established in 2001. The Care Transitions project was designed to address the negative consequences of fragmented care, including duplication of services, inappropriate or conflicting care recommendations, medication errors, patient/caregiver distress, unnecessary rehospitalization and higher costs of care.

The Care Transitions project
was designed to address the
negative consequences of
fragmented care for
geriatric patients

The overarching goals of the project are to enhance the capacity of patients and their caregivers to effectively manage transitions across different sites of care, function as part of the interdisciplinary health care team, and facilitate collaboration among health professionals across distinct health care settings.

To achieve these goals, Dr. Coleman and colleagues developed a patient-centered interdisciplinary team model comprised of four components:

1. A patient-centered record that consists of the essential care elements for facilitating productive interdisciplinary communication during the care transition (referred to as the Personal Health Record, or PHR).

2. A structured checklist of critical activities designed to empower patients to enlist interdisciplinary collaboration across the transition.

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