Post-Acute and Long-Term Care Medicine: A Guide for Practitioners (Current Clinical Practice)

This book addresses current issues surrounding hospital admissions and readmissions and the practice of post-acute and long-term care (LTC). Now in its fully revised and expanded third edition, it contains the most up-to-date knowledge and regulations pertinent to practice in Post-Acute and Long-Term Care Medicine. 

Post-Acute and Long-Term Medicine is divided into four main sections. The first section is an introduction to long-term care. It includes chapters on home health care, assisted living and residential care, department of veteran affairs and nursing facilities, among others. The second section focuses on clinical medicine in post-acute and long-term care and contains chapters on common clinical conditions, preventing hospital admissions and readmissions, palliative care, weight and nutrition and wound care. The third section details psychosocial aspects of post-acute and long-term care. Chapters in this section describe dementia, delirium, depression, ethical and legal issues and caring for families. The fourth and final section centers on special issues in post-acute and long-term care. This section focuses on documentation and coding, medication management and rehabilitation and maximizing function. The outbreak of COVID-19 has led to two very important new chapters in this section. One chapter discusses challenges and opportunities in post-acute long-term care that have arisen during the pandemic. Another new chapter talks about the importance of virtual care and telemedicine in post-acute and long-term care amidst the COVID-19 outbreak. 

Written by experts in the field, many of whom have worked within AMDA – The Society for Post-acute and Long-term Care Medicine - to create and disseminate a knowledge base for post-acute and LTC, this is a valuable resource for clinicians and educators seeking to maximize the care and living experience of residents in post-acute and long-term care settings. 

Peter Winn MD CMD HMDC is a full professor in the Department of Family and Preventive Medicine at the University of Oklahoma. He holds Board Certification in Family Medicine and Board Certification of Added Qualifications in Geriatric Medicine as well as in Hospice and Palliative Medicine. As of 2021 Dr. Winn received certification as a Hospice Medical Director (HMDC) thought the Hospice Medical Director Certification Board.  Dr. Winn is active in teaching geriatrics in the Department, including use of previous editions to this book to teach physicians in training at the nursing facility where he serves as medical director. Dr. Winn is an ongoing faculty member of The Society for Post-Acute and Long-term Care Medicine’s Core Curriculum Committee since January 2005.

Pamela A. Fenstemacher, MD, RCMD, FAAFP. After finishing her fellowship in Geriatric Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. During her career Dr. Fenstemacher pursued her interest in caring forthe elderly through teaching, writing, practicing clinical medicine and medical direction. Dr. Fenstemacher began working in the PACE environment in 2011 when she became a medical director of her first LIFE program and continued to work in PACE until 2018.  She was a faculty member of The Society for Post-Acute and Long-term Care Medicine’s Core Curriculum Committee from January 2005 to December 2020. She enjoys her on-going contribution to the medical literature with this third edition of Post-Acute and Long-Term Care Medicine: A Pocket Guide.

Richard Stefanacci, DO, CMD. He has focused his career on care delivery systems to improve health outcomes.  He has put this focus into practice as Chief Medical Officer (CMO) for several management care plans including ElderHealth/Bravo/HealthSpring/Cigna and PACE (Program for All-inclusive Care for the Elderly) programs. Despite being a CMO, Dr. Stefanacci throughout has maintained active clinical practice focused on frail, older adults knowing the importance of leading change directly with his care teams. On the policy side, Dr. Stefanacci served as Health Policy Scholar for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) through his role as a Visiting Scholar at the Thomas Jefferson University Department of Health Policy. He has over 500 publications in addition to delivering well over 1000 lectures both nationally and internationally focused on efficient and effective care delivery.

An active member of several professional associations focused on care delivery, Dr. Stefanacci served on the American Society of Consultant Pharmacists (ASCP) and the AMDA Foundation Boards as well as being honored as an honorary lifetime member for ASCP and the National Association of Directors of Nursing. Finally, Dr. Stefanacci has achieved recognition as a fellow in both the College of Physicians of Philadelphia and American Geriatric Society as well as recently being awarded the Humanism in Aging Leadership Award from the University of New England, Department of Geriatrics.

R. Scott DeLong, MD, CMD. He is the Geriatric Fellowship Director for Penn Medicine/Lancaster General Health (LGH). He received his medical degree from the Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine in 2004. He completed his family medicine residency in 2007 at LGH.  He then completed his geriatric fellowship at LGH in 2008. Dr. DeLong’s subspecialty interests include nursing home care, hospice and palliative medicine, and inpatient geriatric consultations. He also serves as medical director of Mennonite Home Communities in Lancaster, PA, where he provides services to both skilled care and long-term care residents.  He also is a medical director at Hospice and Community Care in Lancaster, PA, where he provides hospice care to nursing home residents.