In 2007, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) charged the ad hoc Committee on the Future Health Care Workforce for Older Americans to determine the health care needs of Americans over 65 years of age and to assess those needs through an analysis of the forces that shape the health care workforce.
This report, Retooling for an Aging America: Building the Health Care Workforce, served as a call for fundamental reform in the way the workforce is trained and used to care for older adults. The committee proposed a concurrent three-prong approach:
- Enhance the geriatric competence of the entire workforce
- Increase the recruitment and retention of geriatric specialists and caregivers
- Improve the way care is delivered
This study was funded by The John A. Hartford Foundation, The Atlantic Philanthropies, The Josiah Macy, Jr. Foundation, The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, The Retirement Research Foundation, The California Endowment, Archstone Foundation, The American Association of Retired Persons, The Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, and The Commonwealth Fund.
