UNC Health Care and the Dementia Friendly Hospital Initiative received the Triangle Business Journal’s 2020 Health Care Heroes Award for Community Outreach on Thursday February 13. The award honors an individual or organization for the development of a program that improved access to, and the quality of, medical service in an underserved area.
Jan Busby-Whitehead, MD, Chief, UNC Division of Geriatric Medicine and Director, UNC Center for Aging and Health, received the Community Outreach award on behalf of participating hospitals.
“There is currently no cure for Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias. What we can do now is provide better care to improve outcomes for patients. I’m so proud of all the teams at our 5 UNC hospitals who have embraced this goal and taken up the dementia-friendly charge,” said Busby-Whitehead.
The Duke Endowment-funded training program will train nearly 4,000 staff in five UNC Health Care hospitals in dementia-friendly communications and care. Training is underway or getting started at:
UNC Hospitals Hillsborough Campus
Wayne UNC Health Care
NC Memorial Hospital
Chatham Hospital UNC Health Care
Pardee UNC Health Care