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Finger Lakes Center for Living Director of Nursing to Speak at National Conference
July 19, 2010 – Adeline (Abby) Bovee, Director of Nursing at the Finger Lakes Center for Living (FLCL), a nursing home affiliated with Auburn Memorial Hospital, has been invited to speak at the 2010 Annual Meeting & Exposition of the American Association for Homes and Services for the Aging (AAHSA). The conference is scheduled for October 31 to November 3 in Los Angeles, CA.
Bovee’s talk will be “Health Informatics to Improve Quality of Care Outcomes,” a message about alternatives to drugs in dealing with difficult behaviors common among people who suffer from Alzheimer’s or dementia. She made a similar presentation at the annual conference for directors of nursing sponsored by the New York State Association of Homes & Services for the Aging in November, 2009.
As part of a study funded by the Alzheimer’s Association, which provided 55 nursing homes from around the country with access to dementia-specific quality measures and benchmarks, Bovee built a team of physicians, pharmacists, FLCL staff and families who worked together in studying the residents who had Alzheimer’s or dementia.
“In the late 90s, the FDA stated that using antipsychotic drugs with dementia patients is often inappropriate and may actually hasten their death,” she stated. “We wanted to change the culture. We looked at each patient’s diagnosis. If the medication was appropriate, we did not change the regime. But in many cases, we saw good results by gradually reducing the medication and initiating alternative treatments.”
Karen Jeffreys, Vice President of Long Term Care, stated: “Abby’s leadership on this project inspired her team to make necessary changes, and as a result the quality of life for affected residents has dramatically improved.”
Bovee recently earned a Master’s degree in Business Management from Keuka College, in addition to the R.N. and B.S. degrees she already held.
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