Authors

  1. O'Rourke, Beth OTD, OTR/L, BCPR
  2. Widenhoefer, Tricia PT, MSPT, CBIS
  3. Reimer, Nila PhD, RN
  4. Vazquez, Emilio MD, FAAFP
  5. Wolpert, Chantelle PhD, MBA, GC

Abstract

Health care providers are facing escalating growth within the number of geriatric patients as well as increased medical complexity and soaring health care costs. There is a movement in place refocusing efforts to provide new models of health care concentrated on treating individual complexities of the aging populations as a team. Research shows interprofessional collaboration improves patient outcomes, patient safety, and staff morale while decreasing hospital admissions, length of hospital stays, and staff turnover. The purpose of this article is to show research supporting the implementation and benefits of interprofessional collaborative practice use in geriatric health care settings.