The Gilster Group

Reduce readmissions

Nearly one in four hospitalized patients with dementia is readmitted within 30 days. Increasing numbers of Medicare beneficiaries are diagnosed with dementia each year, and the cost is high – over time, financially devastating to hospitals unless they alter their approach and post-acute care strategies for patients with dementia. Families and post-acute settings are ill equipped to manage the issues that surface in the disease after hospitalization, resulting in readmissions and costly adverse events.

Learn how The Gilster Group can help your hospital or organization with a proactive, planned approach to decreasing readmissions.

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Ouslander, J; Berenson, R: Reducing Unnecessary Hospitalizations of Nursing Home Residents, New England Journal of Medicine, September, 2011.

Decrease costs

Recent reports indicate that up to 43% of hospital patients age 65 and older are cognitively impaired.** The presence of dementia upon admission – regardless of the admitting diagnosis – greatly impacts the cost of acute care. The average length of stay for people with dementia is longer and they suffer numerous adverse events, increasing costs and decreasing satisfaction.

As experts in the field, The Gilster Group can help your organization reduce these very costly issues while enhancing patient and family satisfaction.

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**Boustani, M., et al: Impact and Recognition of Cognitive Impairment Among Hospitalized Elders, Journal of Hospital Medicine, February, 2010.

Dementia expertise

The Gilster Group recognizes that individuals with dementia require an expert, non-traditional approach to care. Treatment of individuals with dementia in acute care currently is rarely different than the care of cognitively intact patients. Yet, deficits common to those with dementia impede patients’ ability to participate in care, understand what is occurring, communicate needs or follow instructions – all of which increase adverse events and length of stay.

Decades of experience working with individuals suffering memory loss and dementia enable The Gilster Group to help your organization develop a cost-saving, distinctive approach to care.

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About Us

In mid-2012, Susan Gilster, PhD, RN, LNHA, established The Gilster Group, a multidisciplinary collaboration of experts in memory loss and dementia which provides education, training and consulting to health care providers. An award-winning leader in the field, Dr. Gilster recognizes the urgent need to reduce medical costs while enhancing care for individuals with dementia.

Prior to The Gilster Group, Dr. Gilster founded and operated the Alois Alzheimer Center, the first dementia-specific facility in the United States. For more than 25 years, Dr. Gilster created innovative practices and programs for individuals with dementia as well as their families.

Building on this vast expertise, The Gilster Group works with clients to improve operations that affect their organizations’ level of care and bottom lines. In developing a custom program for each client, The Gilster Group conducts an analysis of existing operations then provides education, care strategies and mechanisms to enhance satisfaction and support for individuals, staff and families. The Gilster Group provides this guidance to hospitals, ACOs, managed care and insurance companies, and physician practices that understand the value of a forward-thinking and innovative approach.