Director of the Center for Health Services Research Mark Williams was approved to lead a $14.9 million “Effectiveness in Transitional Care” project from the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institution, UK announced Tuesday.

The three-year contract will allow Williams and a team of researchers to identify problems that exist in moving patients between hospitals, nursing homes and their own houses, the university announced.

Williams, professor and vice-chairman of internal medicine, said in the streamed press conference Tuesday that transitional care is an issue that needs to be addressed in U.S. hospitals.

“I’ve been taking care of patients in hospitals and emergency rooms for more than 25 years now, and too often patients are leaving the hospital, and they have to go to other facilities and there’s a big gap in care,” Williams said. “We haven’t figured out, really, how to bridge them and get them the care they deserve.”

“Our work challenges us to address the questions that confront all of us and think of the questions we haven’t even asked,” university president Eli Capilouto said in the streamed announcement Tuesday morning. “Today, we are addressing one of those complex question with the support of federal, state, private and institutional partners, as well as experts from a diverse array of discliplines.”

PCORI, a nonprofit, nongovernmental agency located in Washington, D.C., was established in 2010 by Congress along with the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

The collaboration exists between UK and 13 other organizations, many of which are also universities, according to the UKNow article written by Kristi Lopez on Tuesday.

“Basically, the leaders of the major care transition programs in the United States decided to come together to pursue this PCORI award because all of us wanted to improve care for patients,” Williams said.

Patients and caregivers will be interviewed to see what changes need to be made, Williams said, and healthcare providers and families could receive training on how to make transitions happen more smoothly.

“The incredible faculty and staff at the University of Kentucky are guided by our work with and for communities,” Capilouto said. “We are called upon to be more than the University of Kentucky — we must be the university for Kentucky.”

Staff Report