April 21 at the World Health Congress, John Erickson, CEO and founder of all things Erickson, Rick Grindrod, President of Developing Enterprises, and Matt Narrett, Chief Medical Officer of Erickson Health, led by moderator, Dr. Ken Thorpe, Executive Director of the Partnership to Fight Chronic Disease, gave a presentation on how one group disregarded the clichés, regulatory and political restrictions to their mandate to provide high quality healthcare, and succeeded in improving outcomes and managing costs in the so-called highest health cost center: the over 65 population.

Entitled: The Politics of Prevention: Improved Financial and Clinical Outcomes for Chronically Ill Populations, and described in the program this way: ” Health care costs today continue to skyrocket, with the chronically ill and aging population serving as the biggest drivers of costs. Could the politics behind medicine be the root of all evil? Are the presidential candidates’ universal health care plans truly the solution? Or is preventive care and technology the rational center of reducing costs and improving care? Separate fact from fiction by reading the Erickson Health White Paper that reveals successful approaches to cost reductions as well as positive health outcomes.

Health Plans, Hospitals, and Health System CEOs, Chief Financial and Medical Officers, and other strategic executives along with policy makers and the media who attended the presentation, heard what can be done to leverage the impact on health care outcomes and costs.

Each attendee received a white paper with information on reducing health costs written by the Erickson Health team, who, among other successes, has managed to reduce hospital days in a Medicare population by 48% compared to traditional Medicare.

Erickson Health is the heart and soul of the Erickson Lifestyle. Providing information, education and a needed focus on preventive health, this model strives to keep Erickson residents (average age 81) living as independently as possible and as active as they want to be. Reducing falls, improving balance, prescribing appropriate medication and sharing needed information with the resident, their other doctors and any other person the resident wishes, Erickson Health has, and continues, to emphatically and appropriately make a difference in residents and their family members lives.

And now, by the end of 2008, Erickson Health will be attempting to launch their health care model beyond the gates of Erickson Communities to continue to help seniors, elders, mature citizens live even better, no matter what their health.

The presentation and white paper were well received by the movers, shapers, and leaders of healthcare entities nationwide. To demonstrate, also in a non-traditional way, who we are and what we do, we decided to give to each of the 2000 attendees a 2008 calendar created and owned by the residents of 1 of the over 20 Erickson Communities, in a tribute to the movie, Calendar Girls. These are pictures of our residents, in modest undress poses for each month.

The residents decided to do this on their own to raise funds for their Benevolent Fund, a fund to help residents who are in financial need. It was very well received by all attendees and received a best of award. There were the few who remarked condescendingly about elders in less dress. Fortunately those were few. This was the ladies of Greenspring’s idea and it demonstrates their zest for life and are models (no pun intended) for those of us who aspire to life our best life, everyday, in everyway.

To find out more about the white paper and national poll on preventive health, visit our special site at http://www.politicsofprevention.com

To find out more about the Greenspring Calendar Girls, visit http://www.erickson.com/cgirls/ or watch the video on how they made the calendar go here, http://www.erickson.com/cgirls/video.html

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