Partnering to offer a curriculum to help increase the number of high-quality, home-based primary-care professionals in the United States, the University of Arizona Center on Aging is one of eight new “centers of excellence” selected by the Home Centered Care Institute.
The Home Centered Care Institute (HCCI) is a non-profit organization that works to nationally advance home-based primary care through research, education and training.
With its new partners, HCCI aims to increase the Home-Based Primary Care (HBPC) workforce by training 5,000 clinicians, as well as practice managers, over the next five years. Today, the HCCI estimates that there are only 1,000 U.S. providers making the majority of home-based primary care visits.
HCCI has led development of the only comprehensive home-based primary care curriculum in the nation and the following eight partner Centers of Excellence institutions will offer the training:
- University of Arizona Center on Aging
- Cleveland Clinic
- Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
- MedStar Health – Medical House Call Program
- Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine
- Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania
- University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences
- University of California, San Francisco
The UA Center on Aging was named a Center of Excellence at the UA Health Sciences by the Arizona Board of Regents in 1991. Since 1980, it has served as one of a network of Long Term Care Gerontology Centers authorized by the Older Americans Act. The Center, in partnership with Banner University Medicine and the University of Arizona Health Plans, now serves more than 250 home-based patients and their families in the Southern Arizona region.
Mindy J. Fain, MD, is co-director of the UA Center on Aging, which works to promote a long and healthy life for older adults through coordinated programs in research, education, outreach and patient care. Dr. Fain, a widely recognized leader in gerontology, will establish and lead the HCCI HBPC training effort at the UA.
Dr. Fain is the Anne and Alden Hart Professor of Medicine, division chief of geriatrics, general internal medicine and palliative medicine at the UA College of Medicine – Tucson and director of the UA Arizona Geriatric Education Center. In addition, she is a member of the National Institute on Aging Behavior and Social Science of Aging Review panel and president of the American Academy of Home Care Medicine.
Dr. Fain and the UA Center on Aging will be one of eight teams in the nation recruiting and providing the HCCI Home-Based Primary Care training to physicians, nurse practitioners and physician assistants, working to create HCCI faculty experts, trainers and mentors. Serving as key faculty members in the HCCI training with Dr. Fain are Monica R. Vandivort, MD, assistant professor of medicine and medical director of home care, and Corinne Self, MD, assistant professor of medicine at the UA College of Medicine – Tucson.
The HCCI Essential Elements of Home-Based Primary Care© curriculum was developed by a cadre of nationally recognized home-based primary care thought leaders and focuses on four core components of home-based primary care—foundational principles, economics, operations and clinical care.
The foundational course is comprised of three learning experiences. In the first, Center of Excellence faculty members deliver 12 hours of classroom education designed to ensure both clinical care and practice management professionals meet required competencies and established performance standards.
About the University of Arizona Center on Aging
The mission of the University of Arizona Center on Aging (ACOA) at the UA College of Medicine – Tucson is to promote long and healthy lives of older adults through coordinated programs in research, education, outreach and patient care. Established in 1980 as one of a network of Long Term Care Gerontology Centers authorized by the Older Americans Act, the ACOA was approved by the Arizona Board of Regents as a Center of Excellence at the University of Arizona Health Sciences in 1991. For more information, please visit the center’s website: www.aging.arizona.edu