Leadership in Integrated Healthcare Award: This award recognizes an individual who has made significant impact on the integration of EMS, or the advancement of the integration of EMS into the healthcare system.

Description of Initiatives & Impacts

Janice Knebl, DO, MBA, FACP, MACOI

We would like to nominate Dr. Janice Knebl for the AIMHI Leadership in Integrated Healthcare Award. 

Dr. Knebl is a Professor of Geriatrics, and Director of the Center for Geriatrics, at the University of North Texas Health Science Center.  She has been a staunch advocate for promoting the inclusion of EMS in the greater healthcare system through numerous initiative outlined below.

“WE HAIL” GPLI Initiative

Dr. Knebl is a pioneer in the treatment of older adults and has made a lasting impact on geriatric training for osteopathic medical students and health care professionals.  In 2015, Dr. Knebl and her team helped craft the “WE HAIL” program, Workforce Enhancement in Health Aging and Independent Living, with funding from the Health Resources and Services Administration.

Through the “WE HAIL” program, Dr. Knebl created the Geriatric Practice Leadership Institute (GPLI), which prepares interdisciplinary teams of early and mid-career healthcare professionals to become clinical leaders in their organizations using the Age-Friendly Health Systems 4Ms Framework. 

For the past three years, Dr. Knebl has included MedStar Mobile Healthcare in the GPLI program.  Projects completed by the MedStar teams involved in the institute include:

Mitigating Physiological and Environmental Fall Risks in the Mobile Integrated Healthcare Population with Individualized Interventions

• This project led to the development and implementation of a comprehensive fall risk assessment and follow-up for persons over 65 who accessed the 911 for a medical emergency.

Training or Transport: Improving Dementia Caregiver Understanding to Improve Outcomes

• The project developed a comprehensive approach to training EMS providers and other caregivers on how to identify and manage patients suffering from dementia.
• Project outcome was awareness to the issue of lacking health literacy and cultural competency of dementia caregiver and first responder education and support and creating tools that can immediately impact education needs of the clients and public served by both MedStar and the Alzheimer’s Association as well disseminated best practices for use in hospitals and healthcare.

HRSA Fall Risk Assessment/Intervention Study –

Dr. Knebl is also the principle in 5-year study grant from the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), an agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.  This study addresses issues related to fall prevention and education for EMS providers.  This project includes:

• Education for EMS personnel on the fall risks to assess in the patient’s home setting.
• The implementation of a comprehensive fall-risk screening for all EMS encounters for patients 65 or over.
• Training for EMS personnel on the use of the screening tool.

As an add-on to the study, HRSA offered additional funding for COVID-related needs in the community.  Dr. Knebl reached out to MedStar to collaborate on identification and implementation of service enhancements for the homebound elderly in our community who may be struggling through isolation as a result of the pandemic.  The program included a partnership between Tarrant County Meals on Wheels and MedStar.  Volunteers from Meals on Wheels identified clients that would likely benefit from an in-home assessment by a MedStar Mobile Healthcare Paramedic.  The short-term project provided enhanced assessments and resource referrals for over 110 homebound seniors in our community.

For these and countless other reasons, we feel that Dr. Knebl is very worthy of this award!

Biography

Dr. Knebl is a Professor of Geriatrics, and Director of the Center for Geriatrics, at the University of North Texas Health Science Center.  She has been a staunch advocate for promoting the inclusion of EMS in the greater healthcare system through numerous initiative outlined below.

Dr. Knebl is currently the Dallas Southwest Osteopathic Physicians’ Endowed Chair in Clinical Geriatrics, Interim Chair of the Department of Internal Medicine & Geriatrics, and Director of the Center for Geriatrics at the University of North Texas Health Science Center (UNTHSC). She is a faculty member at the Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine’s (TCOM) Institute for Healthy Aging and medical director for several local assisted living and memory care centers in the Fort Worth area. A nationally respected leader in treatment, research, and education related to Alzheimer’s and dementia, in 2019 Dr. Knebl received a $3.75 million, five-year grant from the Health Resources Services Administration’s Geriatric Workforce Enhancement Program to fund the UNTHSC Workforce Enhancement in Healthy Aging and Independent Living program. This award-winning program is working to transform clinical training environments for health care professionals and caregivers to better meet the needs of local older adults, many of whom live in rural communities.

Dr. Knebl holds an impressive list of professional appointments. She serves as Board Chair of the National Board of Osteopathic Medical Examiners (NBOME)and sits on the National Quality Forum’s Geriatrics and Palliative Care Standing Committee. She is a former Chair of the Commission on Osteopathic College Accreditation and Alternate Negotiator the U.S. Department of Education to the Negotiated Rulemaking Committee. At UNTHSC, Dr. Knebl holds positions on the TCOM Academy of Medical Educators, the TCOM Curriculum Committee, and the TCOM Executive Committee.