Dr. Rick Voyles loves a good fight! Or, rather, he likes to mediate a good fight! Dr. Voyles became interested in conflict management when he was writing his doctoral thesis in religion a number of years ago. His area of interest at the time was Christian/Jewish/Muslim relations (an obviously fertile ground for the practice of conflict management). He tells us that he is absolutely thrilled to be able to intervene in tense and challenging situations and help bring clarity of purpose and a set of viable alternatives for families to consider as they work through their issues. Dr. Voyles is the President of Conflict Resolution Academy, located in Smyrna, Georgia. His goal is to create a “universal language” for guidance in the resolution of disputes as soon as they happen. Listen as he talks about his work educating social workers, facility directors, care providers and family caregivers, among others, on how to resolve elder conflict issues. Dr. Voyles can be reached at drrickv@aol.com, or at the academy at (770) 435-5009. For more information, check out their website at www.conflictresolutionacademy.com.
Following from last week’s conversation with Jo Vonn Givens, this week we were privileged to hear from another member of the Georgia Medical Care Foundation (GMCF) team. Originally from Altoona, Pennsylvania, Mary Perloe received a degree from University of Wisconsin in Madison. Twenty years ago, she relocated to Atlanta with her husband. Today, Mary is the Manager of the Care Transitions Initiative for GMCF. As noted last week, GMCF is the Medicare Quality Improvement organization for the state of Georgia. The Care Transitions Initiative is intended to improve post acute care and referrals. Specifically, Mary is working hard to reduce 30 day readmissions for Medicare and Medicaid patients. Astonishingly, one in five patients today are readmitted to an acute care facility within 30 days of discharge, and a large percentage of those within the first week. A study in 2005 pegged the national annual cost of this at 17 billion dollars! Mary tells us that one of her case study facilities has decreased readmission of congestive heart failure patients by 10% in the last year. The secret? Education of patient and family, transfer of information at transitions and well planned and executed processes guiding these transitions. Contact Mary at (678) 527-3425, email her at mperloe@gmcf.org, or visit the GMCF website at www.gmcf.org.
