As a doctor caring for older hospitalized patients, I’ve witnessed a growing need for patients to be discharged to skilled nursing facilities before transitioning home. My research investigates the quality of discharge practices at skilled nursing facilities, along with patient and caregivers’ perspectives on these processes. These lines of inquiry will identify gaps in care that can be improved upon using systems-level interventions. I also examine how patient-level factors, such as frailty and cognitive impairment, should be accounted for when individualizing best practices. The goal of this work is to make transitions safer and improve longitudinal outcomes for older adults.

I also have additional streams of research investigating how to increase use of evidence-based best practices to improve healthcare delivery quality, and the effect COVID-19 has had on healthcare delivery (particularly during the height of the pandemic) and post-hospitalization outcomes.