Hartford Foundation Announces Funding For Practice Change Leaders For Aging and Health Program
The John A. Hartford Foundation today announced that it will co-fund a new national program, the Practice Change Leaders for Aging and Health, to increase the number of health care leaders who can effectively promote innovative, high quality health care for older adults.
The Practice Change Leaders Program will select ten applicants per year for three years through a competitive process, providing participants with one year of funding to complete innovative projects and expand their effectiveness as organizational leaders. The first cohort will be open exclusively to health care leaders who have completed the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ Innovation Advisors Program. Future cohorts will open to a broader range of health care leaders, and will not be limited to participants in the Innovation Advisors Program.
"We regard this initiative to transform the delivery of older adults’ health care as both timely and essential,” said Christopher Langston, PhD, Program Director of the John A. Hartford Foundation. “The Practice Change Leaders Program exemplifies the Hartford Foundation’s commitment to supporting innovation and practice change, which we regard as the key to making better, more geriatrically expert care widely available across a range of health care settings.”
The Atlantic Philanthropies will also co-fund the Practice Change Leaders Program (PCL), which will be based at the University of Colorado Denver’s Division of Health Care Policy and Research and will begin work in January 2013. The John A. Hartford Foundation and The Atlantic Philanthropies will each contribute $1.5 million and the Practice Change Leaders’ home institutions will be required to provide matching funds of $20,000 per leader, adding another $600,000 in matching funds, all over three years.
“As our population ages, it is imperative that we make health care for older Americans more responsive, better coordinated and more affordable,” said Stephen McConnell, Country Director for the United States for The Atlantic Philanthropies. “The Practice Change Leaders Program will build a cadre of health care professionals who possess the commitment, the passion, and essential leadership skills and understanding to do just that.”
The need for such leadership is urgent. Older Americans are some of the heaviest users of health care, representing 50 percent of hospital occupancy, 25 to 30 percent of primary care visits and 90 percent of nursing home residency, yet current systems do not deliver high quality care to those who need it most, particularly older adults who have multiple chronic conditions or cognitive impairment or who need long-term care. To address these pressing needs, PCL projects will focus on four core topics: enhanced primary care, accountable care organizations, transitional care and hospital readmission reduction, and programs designed to meet the needs of dually eligible Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries.
The PCL program builds on the success of a previous Atlantic-Hartford Foundation program, the Practice Change Fellows, which helped doctors, nurses and social workers develop the leadership skills and content expertise to positively influence care for older adults. That program was led by Eric Coleman, MD, MPH, Professor of Medicine at the University of Colorado Denver and the founding Director of the Care Transitions Program. Dr. Coleman will also act as Executive Director of the new Practice Change Fellows program, with co-Director Nancy Whitelaw, PhD, Senior Fellow with the Center for Healthy Aging at the National Council on Aging.
“One thing that individuals in this field quickly come to understand is that they can’t achieve real system change alone,” said Dr. Coleman. “Our program helps them become more effective agents of change, both by enhancing their understanding of how policy change really happens and how organizations function and change, and by offering high-level mentoring and a like-minded and supportive peer group that they can continue to consult and collaborate with throughout their careers.”
About The Atlantic Philanthropies
The Atlantic Philanthropies are dedicated to bringing about lasting changes in the lives of disadvantaged and vulnerable people. Atlantic is a limited life foundation focused on four critical social issues: Ageing, Children & Youth, Population Health, and Reconciliation & Human Rights. Programmes funded by Atlantic operate in Australia, Bermuda, Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland, South Africa, the United States and Viet Nam. To learn more, please visit: www.atlanticphilanthropies.org.