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University Hospital rolls out ACE team
to enhance geriatric medicine
University Hospital will introduce
the “ACE” team, a new multidisciplinary
approach in geriatric medicine,
beginning July 1.
ACE, which stands for Acute Care
for the Elderly, will be implemented
through SUNY Upstate’s Geriatrics
Program in the Department of
Medicine.
According to Sharon Brangman,
MD, the ACE team will provide
mandatory consults on University
Hospital patients aged 75 years or older
who have a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s
disease, including all dementias, and/or
who are admitted from a nursing home. “The goal is to intervene and
improve patient care as soon as the
patient is admitted,” said Dr.
Brangman, division chief of geriatric
medicine at University Hospital who
will direct the team. “We also hope to
reduce the patient’s length of hospital
stay and the decline of physical
function that sometimes happens
when older patients are admitted to
the hospital.”
The ACE team, comprises a
geriatrician, geriatric nurse practitioner
and physician assistant, a social worker
and pharmacy staff member who will
perform initial consults on the patient
and contact the patient’s primary
medical team with suggestions on
patient care.
The ACE team is based on a model
that has been used in other hospitals
across the country for a number of
years, usually with a designated unit
for geriatric patients.
“We hope to have a special ACE unit
in the future with the completion of the
vertical expansion,” said Dr. Brangman. “In the meantime, the ACE Team will be
a mobile team that will evaluate patients
on all medical and surgical floors except the surgical acre units."
In addition to
Dr. Brangman,
members of the
ACE team include:
- Geriatrician Khatuna
Stepkovitch,
MD
- Physician
assistant Eileen
Rosecrants
- P.A.-C;
nurse practitioner
Christine Heagle-
Bahn, R.N., N.P.
- Social worker Andrea Zurbruegg,
L.M.S.W.
- Adrienne Smith, PharmD
- Luke Probst, PharmD
- William
Darko, PharmD.
Questions?
Patients and family members can call our office at:
315 464-6100
Comments or suggestions are always welcome!
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