Eighth Annual Leadership and Management in Geriatrics Conference Focuses on Improving Care for the Nation's Elderly

LONG BEACH, Calif., May 24 /PRNewswire/ -- Responding to a growing need in an aging society, concerned healthcare professionals recently gathered in Long Beach, California, to discuss creative approaches to better caring for America's expanding senior population.

"In two decades one of every five Americans will be 65 or older, and our job is to make sure that the healthcare community is well equipped to serve these older adults," said Dan Osterweil, M.D., convener of the Leadership and Management in Geriatrics (LMG) Conference. "If care for the elderly is to be more efficient and less costly, healthcare professionals need to hone their leadership and management skills; and that's what this conference was all about."

Now in its eighth year, the LMG Conference is sponsored by SCAN Health Plan in collaboration with the UCLA Academic Geriatric Resource Center and the California Geriatric Education Center. Unique in its setting and approach, the conference provides participants -- physicians, nurses and allied health professionals -- the opportunity to spend focused, highly interactive time with leaders in the field of geriatric medical management. Attendees work with colleagues and mentors in a retreat-like setting to refine individual action plans related to management or leadership issues they want to address at their worksite. When the conference ended, 24 of the 32 attendees committed to continue working one-on-one with a faculty mentor to implement and evaluate their action plans in a variety of settings, including hospitals, clinics, adult day health centers, home health care and clinical training.

"Our goal is to actually change behavior in ways that lead to a better patient experience," said Dr. Osterweil. "It is important that participants leave the conference with the ability to apply leadership and management skills to the practice of geriatric medicine. This can include how to tap into Web-based technologies for collaborative problem solving, how to interpret basic financial reports, and how to transition into a leadership role. This is real-world knowledge they need to succeed both in their practice and in better serving their patients."

Over the past eight years, 157 participants from 19 states have attended the program as they work to fill what is widely acknowledged as a serious gap in the professional development of those who work in clinical and academic settings related to geriatric care.  

As a health plan dedicated exclusively to seniors and others on Medicare, SCAN's sponsorship of the conference is part of its ongoing commitment to better understand the aging process and advocate on behalf of the needs of seniors. All of SCAN's medical directors have attended this program, and its CEO Dave Schmidt once again this year participated as a faculty member.

For more than 30 years, SCAN Health Plan has been focusing on the unique needs of seniors and is now the country's fourth largest not-for-profit Medicare Advantage plan. The company currently has nearly 130,000 members in California and Arizona. Further information may be obtained at scanhealthplan.com.

SOURCE SCAN Health Plan