Improving Nursing Home Care

An article written by Geriatric experts at the University of Rochester Medical Center addresses concerns in the quality of long-term care currently being provided. The article, entitled Nursing Home Physician Specialists: A Response to the Workforce Crisis in Long-Term Care, calls for a new kind of specialty to meet the needs of nursing home residents a nursing home specialist.

Dr. Paul Katz, lead author on the article and chief of the Division of Geriatrics and Aging at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, believes that the quality of care in nursing homes is directly linked to physician practice.

Katz had this to say about an Institute of Medicine report, which recommends shifting nursing home care from doctors to nurse practitioners, As we face a serious decline in the number of geriatricians, rather than accepting a diminished presence of physicians in nursing homes and finding alternative care models, it is time to consider, appropriately fund, and test the nursing home specialist model.

Dr. Katz proposes that the nursing home specialists devote 20% of their practice to nursing home care, receive enhanced training in nursing home medicine, and possible residencies and fellowships to develop proficiency in the specialty.

–Attorney Jeffrey Pitman

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