GRECC Connect Program Site - Central Iowa
Ben Collins, DO; Geriatric Physician who is Board Certified in Internal Medicine and Palliative Care. He has extensive background in Geriatrics and has worked with Geriatric clinics, Geriatric Psych units, Long Term Care, and Home Health. He has been honored by the Alzheimer’s Association of Iowa for his work with Alzheimer’s disease. He provides care to address the needs of high risk, high need elderly patients in order to maintain a reasonable quality of life and at the same time prevent unnecessary visits to the ER or hospitalizations.
Julia Van Liew Ph.D: Licensed clinical neuropsychologist who performs neuropsychological evaluations through CVT, interprets and presents the results to the interdisciplinary team and participates in the development of a treatment plan.Donald Hayes, PT, GTC, GCS, and Melanie Hundling PT: Rural Physical Therapists who performs physical rehabilitation examinations and provides education to patient and recommendations to team.
Kristen Narotam, OTR/L, MBA: Occupational Therapist who works with Geriatric population to provide evaluations, treatments and recommendations to the interdisciplinary team to assist the patient/family in keeping the patient in the least restrictive living situation. Telehealth is also conducted as needed to complete further aging in place recommendations for the team. She is also taking on the role of case navigation to begin to use data to drive potential consults.
Pamela South RN MSN: Nurse Manger of Telehealth provides leadership and guidance to the Facility Telehealth Coordinator and Telehealth staff regarding program growth and expansion which increases access to the VA for rural and highly rural Veterans.
Rhea Vega: Facility Telehealth Coordinator provides coordination of Telehealth programs to improve, facilitate, and assemble increased access to the VA for Veterans in need of Specialty Care, Mental Health Care, and Primary Care.
Sarah Proctor-Perkins, LPN: Assists the team by providing nursing appointments, recommendations, communicating with outside providers and facilities, coordination of outside services and therapies, obtaining collateral information and requesting outside records.
Point of Contact: Mark Havran, DPT; mark.havran@va.gov
The GRECC Connect VIRTUAL Geriatrics program in Iowa will originate from the Medical Center in Des Moines, Iowa. Geriatric Consultation is currently being provided to the following CBOCs: Mason City, Carroll, Ft. Dodge, and Knoxville. The plan is to also offer at the Marshalltown CBOC in FY22. The team will assist the CBOCs in a consultative nature and provide support to the Primary Care teams. Additionally, given there is an HBPC PACT teams that are embedded in the Mason City, Knoxville, and Marshalltown CBOCs, appropriate referrals will be bi-directional and will assist Veterans, families, caregivers, and staff in providing a patient centered approach in optimizing health and wellbeing.
Last modified: Tuesday, July 26, 2022, 3:32 PM