Presidents Report - January 2015

Dear CALTCM Colleagues,

Happy New Year to all of you!  It is with great excitement that I send this note out to our members to kick off the 2015 year.  I thought this was a nice opportunity to share with members and potential members of CALTCM some of my vision as President.  I thought it would be appropriate to recap some of our more recent history as a foundation for what we hope to build in the future.

As most of you know, we have focused much of our annual conference content in the past decade on quality improvement and, more recently, quality assurance performance improvement (QAPI).  This started back several years when I was the Chair of Education with tremendous effort on the part of the education committee members.  Since then, subsequent chairs and education committee members, along with several talented speakers, have improved on the model and our conference attendees have reaped the benefit of that exposure.  In addition, under the expert leadership of Dan Osterweil, MD, CMD, we have also introduced the Interventions to Reduce Acute Care Transfers (INTERACT) program to stakeholders.  In fact, almost 200 California nursing homes and hundreds of individual learners have been trained on INTERACT through our efforts in the past few years.  Another important initiative we have participated in is the California Partnership to Improve Dementia Care and Reduce Unnecessary Antipsychotic Medication Drug Use in Nursing Homes.  As one of the key stakeholder groups in that initiative, CALTCM was instrumental in educating other stakeholder groups (thank you Drs. Karl Steinberg and Jim Mittelberger) on appropriate and inappropriate use of antipsychotics in nursing homes along with potential alternative non-pharmacological interventions.  All of these initiatives were cutting edge when we first introduced them to the state and were part of national efforts to improve the quality of care and the quality of life of residents in nursing homes.

I hope that what I have highlighted in this brief history will illuminate what I believe is one of CALTCM’s major organizational roles, that of being a statewide leader and early adopter of processes that embrace person-centered, high quality care and improve outcome for residents in long term care.  By keeping vigilant in our focus on national trends, relevant research, and the long term care industry issues, CALTCM has become a state leader in educating facilities and staff on quality related medical care within an interprofessional framework.

It is my goal over the next few years, while I have the privilege of being President of CALTCM, to now lead the organization to enhance and build upon the excellent foundational work of the past decade.  I hope to do that through a few focused initiatives highlighted below:

  • Continue our focus on QAPI expanding into additional problem areas in long term care, to include assisted living and potentially home health.  
  • Embrace and educate others on the principles of interprofessional collaborative practice as outlined in Core Competencies for Interprofessional Collaborative Practice (http://www.aacn.nche.edu/education-resources/ipecreport.pdf)
  • Enhance the ability of our staff and providers in long term care to work together as a high-functioning team by embracing the Team-Based Competencies (http://www.aacn.nche.edu/leading-initiatives/IPECProceedings.pdf)
  • Bring the team to the next level by understanding “Teaming”, a cutting edge concept conceived by Amy Edmondson PhD out of Harvard Business School (http://www.athenahealth.com/leadership-forum/_doc/Teamwork_On_The_Fly.pdf).  Organizations that can learn and incorporate these concepts will be well-positioned to really improve quality.

These four initiatives focus on our educational mission, but these efforts will integrate well with another overarching organization goal of becoming a statewide leader in providing quality related education for patients and residents in long term care.  We are currently working on funding opportunities specifically focused on expanding our work in INTERACT, but there are several other opportunities beyond this on the horizon.

Obviously, this type of aggressive agenda cannot be accomplished without the help of all of our expert members!  I hope that as you read and consider this agenda, that you will consider your own participation in CALTCM.  Here is how you can become an active participant in the organization:

  1. Join (or rejoin) CALTCM and get least one colleague or friend to join as well.
  2. Attend the annual conference and bring at least one colleague with you.
  3. JOIN a committee – Marketing and Membership, Policy and Professional Services, and Education.  Your membership will strengthen and enhance our programs.
  4. Consider a contribution to the organization.
  5. Write an article for THE WAVE.
  6. Consider joining the Board of Directors, which calls for an even higher commitment to the organization, but one that is very worthwhile.
  7. Consider being a speaker for a future annual conference – email our Education Chair with ideas.

I hope you give this all serious thought and will commit to joining us in this important effort to improve the lives of older adults.

Warm regards,

Deb Bakerjian, PhD, APRN, FAAN, FAANP
CALTCM President