Printable Version
Go Back
Hospital to study need for geriatric center
Friday, May 11, 2007(Baltimore Examiner) --
“Today we are increasing our focus on
providing specialized care for
seniors,” said Victor Broccolino, president
of
Hospital officials plan to look into
building a Center for Excellence in
Geriatric Health, with the help of the Horizon
Foundation.
The foundation granted the hospital $950,000
spread out over the next four
years — the largest grant to a single
institution in the foundation’s history —
to examine ways to meet seniors’ needs
through dedicated services or
facilities.
For example, the center could be virtual,
without a specific location, or
physical, like a clinic or a training facility,
said Rich Krieg, president of
the Horizon Foundation.
“It’s going to be a new ball game in
terms of the accommodations, the
equipment and the thinking,” Krieg
said.
Seniors typically receive hospital care
alongside the general population,
but their needs are unique because they tend to
have more ailments than other
patients, Broccolino said.
The quality of senior health care also
affects their families, said Phyllis
Madachy, administrator of the county’s Office
on Aging. A more specialized
focus on senior care could help increase
community support.
“It has the ability to really change how
older adults and their families are
treated in and out of the hospital,” she
said.
Madachy said the effort is part of the
county’s infrastructure to meet the
needs of Howard residents and those who may
move there.
This initiative is part of the Community
Health Partnership, a joint effort
between the Horizon Foundation and the hospital
totaling some $3 million.
The partnership will also support Columbia
Center of Chase Brexton Health
Services, whose customers include those with
Medicaid, Medicare and the
uninsured, and funded the development of the
Behavioral Emergency Unit, which
opened in February.
AT A GLANCE
During the next 25 years, the number of
Howard residents 55 and older is
expected to grow by more than 46,000, rising
from 19 percent to 31 percent of
the population, according to Howard County’s
2004 senior housing master
plan.
Seniors made up 28 percent of the inpatients
at
smichael@baltimoreexaminer.com