Abstract
Twenty years ago, Zeiss and Steffen (1996) described “interdisciplinary healthcare teams” as the “basic unit of geriatric care.” Despite long-standing recognition that the complexity of elder needs extends far beyond basic medical requirements and warrants the involvement of multiple perspectives, many barriers persist to successful integration of care and services. In November 2015, the Sanford Center for Aging at the University of Nevada Reno launched a comprehensive, community-based, interdisciplinary geriatric specialty clinic to serve elders across Northern Nevada. This launch followed an 18-month needs assessment, planning and development process to identify the most appropriate clinical model for filling the geriatric service gaps of the region. This collaborative planning process, including representatives from more than 15 disciplines within the University Health Sciences Division and community members, determined a need for integrated assessment, planning and care coordination services, including the following: 1) comprehensive geriatric assessment; 2) psychosocial assessment; 3) medication therapy management; 4) advance care planning; and 5) chronic care management. Further, these clinic-based services are being extended via telemedicine to support primary care providers and their patients in rural communities. This symposium, intended for geriatric clinical providers of any discipline, will highlight each dimension of the new integrated clinical approach, detail the financial structure for this viable model, and report on the patient status and follow-up data. The various talks will walk audience members through the development and delivery of this new approach, as well as use financial and quality metrics to demonstrate the clinic’s viability and impact.