Improving Care for the Nation's Elderly Focus of SCAN Health Plan's Tenth Annual Leadership and Management in Geriatrics Conference

LONG BEACH, Calif., Jan 30, 2012 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Healthcare professionals concerned with responding to a growing need in an aging society will gather in Long Beach, California, on March 30 to discuss creative approaches to better caring for America's expanding senior population.

"In two decades one of every five Americans will be 65 or older, and our job is to make sure that the healthcare community is well-equipped to serve these older adults," said Dan Osterweil, M.D., course chair of the Leadership and Management in Geriatrics (LMG) Conference. "If care for the elderly is to be more efficient and less costly, healthcare professionals need to hone their leadership and management skills, and that's what this conference is all about."

Now in its tenth year, the LMG Conference helps fill what is widely acknowledged as a serious gap in the professional development of those who work in clinical and academic settings related to geriatric care. This two-day conference is sponsored by SCAN Health Plan in collaboration with the UCLA Academic Geriatric Resource Center and the California Geriatric Education Center.

Unique in its setting and approach, the conference encourages participants -- physicians, nurses and allied health professionals -- to consider novel business approaches to geriatric care. It also provides attendees the opportunity to spend focused, highly interactive time with, and be mentored by, leaders in the field of geriatric medical management as they explore topics critical to caring for the nation's elderly.

"Our goal is to actually change behavior in ways that lead to a better patient experience," said Dr. Osterweil. "It is important that participants leave the conference with the ability to apply leadership and management skills to the practice of geriatric medicine. This real-world knowledge is essential if they are to succeed both in running a successful practice and in better serving their patients."

As a health plan dedicated exclusively to seniors and others on Medicare, SCAN's sponsorship of the conference is part of its ongoing commitment to better understand the aging process and advocating on behalf of the needs of seniors. In addition to the LMG Conference, SCAN offers healthcare professionals an array of online courses on such topics in chronic kidney disease in the elderly, stroke prevention and management, palliative care, prevention and management of atrial fibrillation, and many others. The website -- www.scancme.com -- also provides clinical guidelines, assessment tools and literature regarding common geriatric medical conditions, all designed to assist healthcare professionals in better managing their older patients. SCAN also produces an e-newsletter that focuses on performance-improvement education in geriatrics and features monthly interviews with experts in geriatric care.

For 35 years SCAN Health Plan has been focusing exclusively on the unique needs of seniors and others on Medicare. The company currently has nearly 130,000 members in California and Arizona. 

Further information may be obtained at scanhealthplan.com