About Us

The Vanderbilt Center for Quality Aging was established in August, 2006 as part of the Vanderbilt School of Medicine, Institute of Medicine & Public Health. The mission of the Center for Quality Aging is to develop innovative interventions to improve quality of care and quality of life for older adults in a variety of care settings including, but not limited to, the following:

• Hospital and Emergency care
• Assisted-living
• Post-acute care
• Long-term care

Center faculty and collaborators are currently conducting or have pending geriatric research projects in each of these care settings (Current Publications and Projects). The Center is comprised of a multi-disciplinary team of research investigators and clinicians. The Center is led by the Director, Dr. Sandra F. Simmons, PhD Professor of Medicine and Dr. John F. Schnelle, PhD, Professor of Medicine both of whom are nationally recognized leaders in the development of behavioral interventions for long-term care residents and the translation of these interventions into care practice. They also have both been involved in determining staffing needs to provide care consistent with federal regulations and best practice guidelines in the long term care setting. Dr. Schnelle previously directed the University of California, Los Angeles Borun Center for Gerontological Research, and the mission of the UCLA Borun Center was the development of behavioral interventions to improve long-term care quality. Dr. Simmons also was previously based at the UCLA Borun Center where she spent the first 10 years of her research career focused on long-term care quality and staffing issues.

During their tenure at UCLA, the extensive work of both Dr. Schnelle and Dr. Simmons was used to develop the Borun Center web-site, which is geared toward providing nursing homes with standardized assessment tools that have been validated in research studies and which staff can use to improve care quality in multiple care domains (weight-loss, incontinence, pain, pressure ulcers, quality of life, and mobility). This work is also reflected on our Center for Quality Aging site, but we have updated and expanded the information within each module based on our more recent studies. In addition, the mission of the Vanderbilt Center for Quality Aging extends beyond long-term care to address care quality issues for older adults in a variety of care settings.

The goal of the Vanderbilt Center for Quality Aging is to establish a leading multi-disciplinary research Center in the field of geriatrics that addresses care needs for older adults across a range of health care settings. Vanderbilt and the Institute of Medicine and Public Health are committed to quality geriatric care and the success of the Center.

 

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The accomplished work of Dr. Schnelle and Dr. Simmons in the long term care setting is extended and complimented by collaboration with investigators and clinicians at Vanderbilt as part of the Center for Quality Aging. The Center collaborators represent a range of clinical expertise within Vanderbilt, all of whom are focused on geriatric care quality (Faculty and Staff).