TOLEDO, Ohio, May 5 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- HCR ManorCare is pleased to announce the formation of the HCR ManorCare Independent Advisory Committee on Quality. The committee has been created to provide advice and recommendations to the company's Board of Directors on ways to measure, maintain and improve quality care for HCR ManorCare patients and residents. The distinguished three-person panel is composed of Vincent Mor, Ph.D., Professor and Chair of the Department of Community Health at the Warren Alpert Medical School, Brown University; Robyn Stone, Dr.P.H., Executive Director for the Future of Aging Services and Senior Vice President of Research for the American Association of Homes and Services for the Aging; and Gail Wilensky, Ph.D., Economist and Senior Fellow at Project HOPE. Among the qualifications that led to the committee members' selection, they all have been publicly recognized for their independence, technical expertise in the area of health care quality and knowledge of post-acute care models.
Dr. Mor formerly served as the Director of the Brown University Center for Gerontology and Health Care Research for 10 years. He has been on the faculty of the Department of Community Health since 1981. Dr. Mor was one of the authors of the Congressionally mandated Minimum Data Set (MDS) for Nursing Home Resident Assessment and evaluated its implementation. He has conducted extensive research on the reliability and validity of the MDS data as used in the field and has pioneered the use of these data to characterize nursing home residents' physical, cognitive and psychosocial functioning. Dr. Mor directed the Brown University component of a CMS contract to develop and validate risk-adjusted quality indicators for nursing homes that are currently being used for public reporting throughout the country.
Dr. Stone is a noted researcher and leading international authority on aging and long-term care policy. Prior to her current positions, she served as Executive Director and Chief Operating Officer for the International Longevity Center in New York. Previous to that position, she worked for the Federal Agency for Health Care Policy and Research (now known as the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality). Dr. Stone also served the White House as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Disability, Aging and Long-Term Care Policy and as Acting Assistant Secretary for Aging in the Department of Health and Human Services under the Clinton Administration. She was a senior researcher at the National Center for Health Services and at the Center for Health Affairs. Dr. Stone was on the staff of the 1989 Bipartisan Commission on Comprehensive Health Care and the 1993 Clinton Administration Task Force on Health Care Reform.
Dr. Wilensky analyzes and develops policies relating to health care reform and to ongoing changes in the health care environment. She is a Commissioner on the WHO's Commission on the Social Determinants of Health, Co-chair of the Department of Defense task force on the Future of Military Health Care and Vice Chair of the Maryland Health Care Commission, and serves as a trustee of the Combined Benefits Fund of the United Mineworkers of America and the National Opinion Research Center. Dr. Wilensky is an elected member of the Institute of Medicine and has served two terms on its governing council. She is a former chair of the board of directors of Academy Health, a former trustee of the American Heart Association and a current or former director of numerous other organizations. She also was formerly Administrator of the Health Care Financing Administration (now the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS)), directing the Medicare and Medicaid programs, and chaired the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission which advises Congress on payment and other issues relating to Medicare.
About HCR ManorCare
HCR ManorCare is a leading provider of short-term post-acute services and long-term care. The company's nearly 60,000 employees provide high-quality care for patients and residents through a network of more than 500 skilled nursing and rehabilitation centers, assisted living facilities, outpatient rehabilitation clinics, and hospice and home care agencies. The company operates primarily under the respected Heartland, ManorCare Health Services and Arden Courts names.
SOURCE HCR ManorCare
