March 15, 2023
Rani Rao, MD, FACP, CMD, started a new leadership position in March 2020. While that may have intimidating—overwhelming even—for some, Dr. Rao didn’t hesitate. She jumped in and worked tirelessly to help her residents, her teams, and her community. Dr. Rao, chief medical officer of the Coler Rehabilitation and Nursing Care Center, is AMDA’s 2023 Medical Director of the Year and the epitome of a courageous physician leader.
In her early days at Coler, Dr. Rao found herself at the center of the COVID-19 outbreak, and she immediately implemented a series of measures to mitigate the adverse impact of this deadly illness on Coler’s highly vulnerable resident population. Her actions led to the development and implementation of a COVID-19 Performance Improvement (PI) Bundle, geared toward addressing health-care inequities and other key social determinants of health.
“The COVID pandemic cut across realms of personal and professional life for many people. Starting a new job as medical director of a nursing facility at the very onset of the pandemic in a city that was not only new for me and my family but also the epicenter of the pandemic was daunting,” Dr. Rao said. “The infection fatality rate for our nursing facility residents was close to 25% when I began my new role. Through collective learning, tracking guidelines from leading medical organizations like AMDA, and collaborating with medical and interdisciplinary staff to implement the PI bundle, we were able to get to a zero infection fatality rate within three months.” She further noted, “We are in the process of completing a retrospective research study on how elevating standards of care for all nursing home residents helped to eliminate disparities and poor COVID-19 outcomes for racial-ethnic minorities.”
This experience, Dr. Rao said, “will remain etched in my memory as a team accomplishment that I was proud to have led and participated in.” She further noted, “In the subsequent year, 100% of our medical providers stated on a survey that they felt valued despite the trying times. This was encouraging and emotionally touching.”
While the pandemic took much of Dr. Rao’s attention, she also spearheaded a Person-Centered Palliative Care Improvement Initiative at Coler. By the end of the third quarter of 2022, there was a 49% increase over the previous year in the number of Coler residents actively enrolled in the palliative care program.
Patient-focused efforts that maximize care and quality of life are also priorities for Dr. Rao. For instance, she led the development of an Enhanced Quality of Life Unit at Coler, intended for nursing home residents with serious life-limiting illnesses who presently have limited access to this level of care. Additionally, she also oversees the facility’s Infection Control Department, where she educates and guides the antibiotic stewardship team.
In an effort to expand the availability of on-site post-acute care services to her facility’s largely ethic-racial minority resident population, Dr. Rao led the first Dialysis Den Program at Coler, which quickly filled to capacity.
Accepting the award at PALTC23 in Tampa, FL, last week, Dr. Rao said, “It is incredible to receive this award from an organization I have long looked up to.” She warmly acknowledged her family, saying, “Our families take risks with us, and they are our unsung heroes. I thank my husband and daughters every day.”
