West Orange, NJ -- Barnabas Health Foundation is the recipient of a two-year, $300,000 grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) through its New Jersey Health Initiatives program. The money will be used to fund the Barnabas Health Transition Program for the Frail Elderly with Dementia, a program designed to improve patients’ self-management of their care and decrease hospital readmissions among this vulnerable population afflicted with multiple chronic health conditions. The program will be developed at Monmouth Medical Center, an affiliate of Barnabas Health serving Monmouth, Essex and Ocean counties, and then expand to other Barnabas Health affiliates throughout New Jersey.
“The population of individuals 65 and older with dementia and other chronic conditions is at high risk for adverse health outcomes, hospital readmission and mortality,” says Allan R. Tunkel, MD, PHd, Chairman of the Department of Medicine at Monmouth Medical Center and the Project Director. Dr. Tunkel explains that the Transition Program consists of eight core components to enhance care for this target population. Among them are identifying achievable patient goals, helping to remove barriers to care, improving patient and caregiver education, creating safe pharmaceutical regimens, and developing a patient-specific plan of care.
Among the key objectives of the program are to screen 900 patients for frailty, dementia, and co-morbidities annually, to record patient-identified goals and objectives, identify barrier and support resources, conduct patient and caregiver education, conduct multidisciplinary case conferencing and develop a detailed, patient-specific My Care Plan for each patient. We will conduct follow-up calls and home visits through collaborating home health agencies.
The Wallerstein Foundation for Geriatric Life Improvement made a $25,000 grant to the Barnabas Health Foundation as a matching grant to the $300,000 awarded by Robert Wood Johnson Foundation through its New Jersey Health Initiatives program.
Partnering with Barnabas Health will be the Visiting Nurse Association of Central NJ, Care One at King James, HealthSouth Rehabilitation Hospital of Tinton Falls, and Aetna. Partners will participate in multi-disciplinary conferences and serve as liaisons to facilitate the implementation of the Transition Program as well as receive training and create protocols to implement and utilize the program’s core components to improve care.
RWJF’s New Jersey Health Initiatives program seeks to identify projects that present innovative strategies and collaborations to resolve health care needs in New Jersey communities. The grant awarded to Barnabas Health for the Transitions Program was among only nine projects out of 27 that were approved for funding in 2011.
Barnabas Health
Barnabas Health is a statewide integrated health care delivery system that provides treatment and services for more than two million patients each year and delivers 18,300 babies annually. The System, the largest in New Jersey, includes six acute care hospitals, two children’s hospitals, ambulatory care centers, geriatric centers, the state’s largest statewide behavioral health network and comprehensive home care and hospice programs. The System includes 18,000 employees, including 5,360 nurses (second largest private employer in New Jersey), 4,600 physicians (representing one-fifth of the State’s actively practicing physicians), and 445 residents (the largest non-university complement of residents in NJ).
Among Barnabas Health’s nationally recognized services and facilities are New Jersey’s only certified burn treatment facility (top 10 in the U.S.); world-class cardiac and cardiac surgery services, named by U.S. News & World Report as one of the 50 Best Hospitals in the U.S. for Specialty Care in Cardiology and Heart Surgery in 2011 and 2012 for three consecutive years; the state’s oldest, most experienced heart transplant program ranked in the top 5 by volume nationally; New Jersey’s only lung transplant program; five certified chest pain centers by the Joint Commission Certification in Acute Coronary Syndrome and one chest pain center certified by the American Society of Chest Pain Centers; three Joint Commission-accredited Primary Stroke Centers, one Comprehensive state-accredited Stroke Center and three-state accredited Primary Stroke Centers; one of the most comprehensive robotic surgery services in the nation; and two kidney transplant centers which are among the largest 5 programs in the nation with 35 years of experience.
The System also includes a renowned neurology and neurosurgery program; a widely recognized reproductive medicine and science program; nationally recognized geriatric services; comprehensive cancer services; three Valerie Fund Children’s Centers for Cancer and Blood Disorders; renowned women’s and children’s services, including Children’s Hospital of New Jersey at Newark Beth Israel and The Children’s Hospital at Monmouth Medical Center; three highest level neonatal intensive care units; and New Jersey’s only neonatal ECMO program.
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation focuses on the pressing health and health care issues facing our country. As the nation’s largest philanthropy devoted exclusively to improving the health and health care of all Americans, the Foundation works with a diverse group of organizations and individuals to identify solutions and achieve comprehensive, meaningful and timely change. For more than 35 years the Foundation has brought experience, commitment, and a rigorous, balanced approach to the problems that affect the health and health care of those it serves. When it comes to helping Americans lead healthier lives and get the care they need – the Foundation expects to make a difference in your life. For more information, visit www.rwjf.org.
Date: October 4, 2011
Contact: Ellen Greene
973-322-4018
egreene@barnabashealth.org
