Older Health Care Workers Conference Follow-Up
Health & Medicine Policy Research Group and the Great Lakes Centers for Occupational and Environmental Safety and Health (University of Illinois at Chicago, School of Public Health) co-hosted the Older Healthcare Workers Conference in the morning of Tuesday September 29th, 2009. The conference, on campus at the University Illinois of Chicago, included roughly 50 participants with a diverse range of backgrounds. The conference was a successful stepping stone to convening major home care agencies, health care organizations and workers, policy and research professionals, and labor unions in addressing the important and growing population of older adult healthcare workers. Participants and organizers alike agreed that this conference is only the beginning of a dialogue that must be continued on the topic.
Speakers and workshops focused on five main areas of Older Healthcare Workers:
1.) recruitment and retention issues
2.) training and promotion
3.) workplace design and accommodating workers with disabilities
4.) wellness and health promotion programs
5.) workplace policies and legislative initiatives.
Let’s keep the dialogue going about these issues and possible solutions. Send your thoughts, resources, news and other information to Kristen Pavle at Health & Medicine and we’ll post items on our Special Page on the Health & Medicine blog at: http://hmprg.typepad.com/health-medicine-hmprg/
If you subscribe to the Health & Medicine comment feed, you will be able to post comments to some of the posts that appear in the Long Term Care section.
Conference Materials
- Conference Agenda
- Conference Speaker Bios
- Employer Case Examples
- Reading Resources Packet
- Vendor List
Conference Presentations
- Keynote Presentation
- Civic Engagement and Older Adults
- Workplace Design and Accomodating Workers with Disabilities
Additional Materials
- Averting a Care Crisis
- LEAP Towards Culture Change
- Building the Foundation for Quality Improvement
- Northwestern Memorial Hospital Safe Lifting Program
Workshop Summaries
- Policy and Legislative Initiatives Workshop Summary
- Recruitment and Retention Workshop Summary
- Training and Promotion Workshop Summary
- Wellness and Health Promotion Workshop Summary
- Workplace Design Workshop Summary
Older Workers Workgroup -Additional Materials, Profiles, Etc.
About the Meeting:
On September 23, 2009, health safety net stakeholders from across the region met to learn from Steve Skardon, Executive Director of the Palmetto Project in South Carolina. The Palmetto Project is a statewide, nonprofit corporation whose mission is to put innovative ideas to work solving social and economic problems in South Carolina. Under Mr. Skardon’s leadership, the organization has implemented 180 public-private partnerships in health care, election reform, race relations, economic development, housing, and education. Mr. Skardon spoke briefly of the Palmetto Project’s health initiatives at the June, 2009 Summit, and was invited back to further discuss the process and outcomes of these initiatives in South Carolina.
Stakeholders met for a half day in Wheaton, IL to learn about how the public-private partnerships were created, how the South Carolina Immunization Project, Communicare, and AccessNet were developed, and why South Carolina has moved to a model of regional networks of care to improve safety net services in the state.
With the support of the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration and foundations in South Carolina, the Palmetto Project’s initiatives have seen an increase in the childhood immunization rate from 53% to 90% (making it number 1 in the U.S. for childhood immunization rates), a 27% reduction in cost of care for patients served by the regional patient navigator network (AccessNet), an 83% reduction of ER utilization by navigated patients with cardiovascular disease, and the development of a state-of-the-art data collection and management system. Our regional stakeholders learned about the initiatives and discussed ideas for improving the health safety net in our region.
Steve Skardon also met with a group of funders to discuss the role foundations have taken in leading the health efforts in South Carolina.
Materials from the Meeting:
View the Introduction PowerPoint, which provides background on this Initiative
The 2009 Awardees:
Health
Rachel Abramson, RN, MS, IBCLC, Health Connect One
Medicine
Robert Cohen, MD, Stroger Hospital
Thomas Huggett, MD, MPH, Circle Family Care
Policy
Ada Mary Gugenheim
Research
Helen Binns, MD, MPH, Children’s Memorial Hospital
Group (“The Quentin Award”)
RIC Women with Disabilities
Emerging Health Leader
Alicia Gonzalez, Chicago Run
Thank you for setting the benchmark for all of us fighting to build an equitable health system.
