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May 7, 2001

Group Health awarded $1.6 million to study innovations in elder care

Seattle—The MacColl Institute for Healthcare Innovation at Group Health Center for Health Studies was recently awarded a $1.6 million grant from The John A. Hartford Foundation to develop and test a new model for improving care for older adults in primary-care settings.

The model calls for a Senior Resource Team—made up of a geriatrician, a nurse practitioner, and a pharmacist specializing in geriatric issues—to work with several primary-care practices, ensuring that all senior patients get the treatments they need. Together they will assess senior patients for disability risk factors, geriatric syndromes, and chronic disease, and ensure that identified problems are properly managed.

Researchers will then compare health outcomes of patients who receive care in this model with a control group receiving usual primary care. They'll test whether the new model results in less functional decline among patients and less health care use.

"Medical science knows a lot about the risk factors that cause individuals to lose function and independence as they grow older," explains Dr. Ed Wagner, director of the MacColl Institute and the principal investigator on the study. "We also know a lot about specific interventions that can reduce those risks. Little is known, however, about the way to integrate these interventions into primary care to affect the functional status of all older adults. That's what we're hoping to learn."

Half of the 30 practices in the study will be within Group Health's own group-model clinics. The other half will be physician practices within the Group Health provider network.

Group Health's Senior Care Roadmap Team, which develops quality-improvement initiatives for senior care at Group Health will guide the project. The Roadmap Team is co-chaired by Dr. Paul Fletcher, medical director for Group Health Permanente's East King/Snohomish District, and Susan Tuller, director of Group Health's Skilled Nursing and Long-Term Care Services.

Dr. Chris Himes, director of Geriatrics and Long-Term Care Services for Group Health Permanente and a family physician at Group Health's Northgate Medical Center, will also play a key role.

Dr. Elizabeth Phelan, acting assistant professor in the University of Washington School of Medicine division of Gerontology and Geriatric Medicine, is the other principal investigator or the study. Phelan also works as a primary care physician at Harborview Medical Center.

The John A. Hartford Foundation is a philanthropic organization dedicated to improving the health of older adults.

The project is scheduled to begin June 1 and is funded for four years.

Group Health Center for Health Studies conducts epidemiologic, health-services, and clinical research related to prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of major health problems. The Center also evaluates the efficacy and cost-effectiveness of health care services and technologies. Funded primarily through government and private research grants, the Center is located in Seattle, Washington.

Group Health Cooperative is the nation's largest consumer-governed health care system, serving nearly 600,000 people in Washington and Idaho.

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