Geriatric Work Group
Dr. Mark Newbrough, Chair

1. West Virginia Demographics regarding aging citizens, access to appropriate care, costs of care, high risk needs.

Community-based Aging Centers of Excellence Project

The WV Primary Care Association is a trade association comprised of 34 community health centers.  These centers operate nearly 130 satellite clinics throughout the state. The community health centers are governed by a consumer board (51%) and essentially strive to provide high quality health care services effectively and efficiently.   Because the Boards are unique to each community, every center offers a little different scope of services, but for the most part, primary care, pharmacy, education, outreach and laboratory services are available.

The community health center capacity assessment will be performed in all 34 community health centers.  The questions will address provider training and expertise, elder friendly environments such as  medication labeling alternatives, benefits simplification strategies, hearing and sight accommodations, transportation, outreach, home monitoring, and finally, costs associated with aging health care services.

The elder needs assessment will target consumers of health center services who are not yet eligible for Medicare (55-64) as well as, current Medicare recipients.  The survey will address demographics and specific services or attributes that would attract an elderly person to seek medical care through a community health center.   Areas such as end of life planning, transportation, home assistance/monitoring, benefits management, one-stop shopping for health and social services are some of the areas that will be probed.

Once the data is collected and analyzed, a tool kit for developing a Community-based Aging Center of Excellence will be developed to assist community health centers in their efforts to establish competent, comprehensive, high quality, efficient, health services that address the needs of the aging population we serve.