by Rebecca Ferrini, MD

The annual California Association of Long Term Care Medicine conference is a great opportunity to do something new and different—present a POSTER on something your facility has done to improve quality. The following gives you some ideas and some guidelines on submitting, developing. Laying out and presenting a poster at a meeting of your colleagues.

By Steve Lai, MD and Tim Gieseke, MD, CMD

We are excited about the upcoming annual CALTCM meeting on April 26 and 27, 2013.  We believe those of us who work in long-term care have a passion for providing the best care possible to frail patients who often have advanced illnesses. With the annual meeting, it is a wonderful opportunity to nourish oneself by sharing your trials and tribulations with other dedicated, long-term care professionals. One of the best ways to learn best practices is by sharing your innovative work at the annual poster session at the meeting.

On August 17, a summit of leaders in long-term care, including officials from the California Department of Public Health and the District Office of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services was convened in San Francisco to hammer out some practical strategies to reduce unnecessary antipsychotic use in skilled nursing facilities in our state. CALTCM had an important presence at this first of three meetings, entitled “California Partnership to Improve Dementia Care.” CALTCM Past President Karl Steinberg, MD, CMD presented to this stakeholders group on the importance of staff and physician education, and of engaging prescribers and medical directors (Powerpoint slides available upon request). The presentation also introduced CALTCM to some attendees who were not familiar with our organization, and emphasized our successes with Process Improvement initiatives in other areas—making us a natural choice to assist with statewide educational efforts. On October 2, the group reconvened with CALTCM President Jim Mittelberger, MD, CMD attending, and with CALTCM Board Member Flora Brahmbhatt, PharmD, presenting to the entire assembly.

Several workgroups were created at the first meeting, and specific strategies were to be devised with both short-term and long-term goals. CALTCM is participating on the Informed Consent workgroup, along with Jocelyn Montgomery of CAHF, several important CDPH officials including Acting Director Debby Rogers and Assistant Deputy Director Pam Dickfoss, as well as pharmacists Rob Menét and Debra Brown, Tony Chicotel of CANHR (California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform). One short-term goal is to remind prescribers of the importance of ensuring that informed consent is obtained for the use of antipsychotics (and all psychotropics) in our nursing home population—which this article should serve to do.