Geriatrics and Extended Care

Geriatrics and Extended Care

VA extended care services help Veterans maintain their independence and quality of life when they are unable to fully care for themselves due to disability, aging, or chronic illness. With more than half of U.S. Veterans aged 65 or older, these services are coordinated through VA’s Office of Geriatrics and Extended Care, although extended care often serves Veterans with service-related conditions including traumatic brain injury, complex battlefield injuries or polytrauma, spinal cord injuries, and chronic pain.

Clinician researchers at more than 20 Geriatric Research, Education, and Clinical Centers (GRECCs) nationwide play a leading role in VA’s extended care research. Investigators look for ways to enhance the quality, accessibility, and efficiency of ongoing care services provided in Veterans' homes, community programs, and VA facilities such as Community Living Centers.

Each section below is populated by a search of the HSR website. Search results are generated based on the search term "Geriatrics" . Results are updated as new data are available.

Citations

(recent GERIATRICS publications)

American Geriatrics Society Beers Criteria® Alternatives Panel, Steinman MA. Alternative Treatments to Selected Medications in the 2023 American Geriatrics Society Beers Criteria®. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. 2025 Sep 1; 73(9):2657-2677, DOI: 10.1111/jgs.19500.
Bittner V, Linnebur SA, Bittner V, Dixon DL, Linnebur SA, Forman DE, Green AR, Jacobson TA, Dixon DL, Orkaby AR, Saseen JJ, Forman DE, Virani SS, Green AR, Jacobson TA, Orkaby AR, Saseen JJ, Virani SS. Managing Hypercholesterolemia in Adults Older Than 75 years Without a History of Atherosclerotic Cardiovascular Disease: An Expert Clinical Consensus From the National Lipid Association and the American Geriatrics Society. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. 2025 Jun 1; 73(6):1674-1696, DOI: 10.1111/jgs.19398.
Bittner V, Linnebur SA, Dixon DL, Forman DE, Green AR, Jacobson TA, Orkaby AR, Saseen JJ, Virani SS. Managing hypercholesterolemia in adults older than 75 years without a history of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease: An Expert Clinical Consensus from the National Lipid Association and the American Geriatrics Society. Journal of clinical lipidology. 2025 Apr 10; 19(2):215-237, DOI: 10.1016/j.jacl.2024.09.005.
Hastings SN, Van Houtven CH, Stanwyck CL, Perfect CR, Seidenfeld J, Stechuchak KM, McConnell E, Plassman BL, Byrd KG, Whitfield CL, Smith VA. Geriatrics-Focused vs Traditional Primary Care in the Veterans Affairs Health Care System. JAMA Network Open. 2025 Jan 2; 8(1):e2454865, DOI: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2024.54865.
Fried TR, Ouyang N, Gnjidic D, Green A, Hilmer S, Holmes HM, Ko S, Mecca M, Reeve E, Reyes CE, Schoenborn NL, Singh R, Street R. Communication as a key component of deprescribing: Conceptual framework and review of the literature. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. 2025 Mar 1; 73(3):717-727, DOI: 10.1111/jgs.19305.

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Publication Briefs

(recent GERIATRICS Publication Briefs )

Older Veterans with COVID-19 Have Increased Frailty Over 12 Months
In this study, researchers used the VA medical records of 91,338 Veterans infected with COVID-19 from March 1, 2020 to April 30, 2021 and an equal number of matched uninfected controls to investigate whether COVID-19 was associated with a change in frailty. Findings showed that older Veterans with COVID-19 experienced a greater increase in frailty, particularly functional impairment, compared to u...
Date: November 9, 2024
VA-GRACE Program Effectively Supports Aging Veterans and Caregivers But Does Not Reduce Readmissions
The Geriatric Resources for Assessment and Care of Elders (GRACE) program is a collaborative, multidisciplinary care model that provides home-based geriatric care management. This study evaluated VA-GRACE from its implementation (2010) to 2020 in terms of its effect on mortality and readmissions – and examined patient, caregiver, primary care provider, and VA-GRACE staff satisfaction. Findings sho...
Date: August 29, 2022
Early Temperature Trends May Identify COVID-19 Infection in Pre-Symptomatic Long-Term Care Residents
Pre-symptomatic COVID-19 transmission in nursing homes is common and older patients often have blunted febrile response to infection. As a result, current clinical screening for temperature above 38°C may not identify infected subclinical cases that risk transmission until later. This study sought to determine whether early temperature trends in the course of COVID-19 infection could identify pre-...
Date: August 4, 2022
Receiving Hospice Services Improved Ratings of End-of-Life Care for Veterans in VA Home-Based Primary Care
This study sought to describe Veterans’ use of community-based hospice services while enrolled in home-based primary care (HBPC) and their associations with bereaved families’ perceptions of care. Findings showed that overall, 53% of family members reported that the care received by Veterans receiving HBPC in the last 30 days of life was excellent. Families of Veterans who received hospice service...
Date: September 29, 2021
Two Studies Show Positive Impact of COVID-19 Vaccinations on VA and Community Nursing Home Residents
U.S. nursing homes incurred more than one-third of COVID-19 fatalities in the United States and began vaccine clinics in mid-December. The first study describes the proportion of COVID-19 positive tests among 130 VA Community Living Centers (CLCs) before and after COVID-19 vaccination. Findings showed that the number of COVID-19 positive tests dropped among all CLC residents in the fourth week aft...
Date: April 16, 2021

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Studies

(recent GERIATRICS projects )

Project No.	Title	PI	Funding End
IIR 23-027	Preventing Loss of Independence through Exercise in Community Living Centers: An Effectiveness-Implementation Trial	Nicosia, Francesca	2029-06-30
CDA 22-078	Applying high-reliability organization principles to home care to enhance patient safety	Quach, Emma	2028-09-30
CDA 22-092	Optimizing Transitions for Dual-Use Veterans Living with Dementia followingHospitalization in the Community	Ayele, Roman	2027-12-31
RCS 98-354	Research Career Scientist Award	Weaver, Frances	2027-09-30
IIR 22-096	Defining Successful Program Configurations in Home-Based Primary Care	Edwards, Samuel	2027-08-31

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HSR Briefs, Reports, Newsletters

There are currently no publications for this topic.

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Cyberseminars The most recent "Geriatrics" seminars are displayed.
Date	Title	Presenter(s)
1/9/2023	Geriatrics and Extended Care Data Analysis Center Residential History File (GECDAC RHF)	Makineni, Rajesh Intrator, Orna
3/15/2022	GECDAC Curated and Value-Added Data Infrastructure	Kinosian, Bruce Intrator, Orna Scott, Winifred
5/22/2019	Military Risk Factors and Risk of Dementia in Female Veterans	Peltz, Carrie
1/23/2019	Operations-researcher Integration: Lessons Learned from a Fruitful Partnership	Hartmann, Christine Snow, Lynn
7/31/2018	TBI and Dementia: What We Know and What We Don’t Know	Yaffe, Kristine
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Videos

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Podcasts

There are currently no podcasts for this topic.

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Other Resources

Visit the website for VA’s Geriatric Research and Education Clinical Centers.
Learn more about the research conducted by the HSR-funded Transformative Health Systems Research to Improve Veteran Equity and Independence Center of Innovation.
Visit the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute on Aging.

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Any health information on this website is strictly for informational purposes and is not intended as medical advice. It should not be used to diagnose or treat any condition.

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