Professional Bio
Sandra F. Simmons, PhD, is a Professor of Medicine in the Division of Geriatrics at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, and she is the Hamilton Chair in Geriatrics and Aging Research. She also holds a secondary appointment as a faculty member in the Department of Psychology at Vanderbilt University in the College of Arts and Science. Her background and training are in clinical psychology and gerontology. She serves as the Director of the Vanderbilt Center for Quality Aging is also a Senior Scholar for the Nashville VA Quality Scholars post-doctoral program training program. Dr. Simmons has been the recipient of numerous grants from the National Institutes of Health, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, the Veterans Health Administration, and the National Alzheimer's Association to examine issues in gerontology. Her research focus includes clinical interventions to improve the quality of care and quality of life for older adults across the continuum of care, encompassing acute care, post-acute care, and long-term care and dementia care within assisted living facilities. She has conducted research to evaluate and improve the quality of long-term care and has published extensively on the validity of nursing home quality indicator metrics, the relationship between staffing and quality, and strategies to translate efficacious interventions into nursing home care practices through quality improvement and implementation science. Her recent research has examined interventions to reduce polypharmacy and improve geriatric syndromes among hospitalized older adults transitioning to post-acute care in both community and Veteran facilities through a patient-centered deprescribing intervention to reduce overall medication burden. She's also leading a separate study to apply simulation modeling to determine the optimal nurse staffing needs for hospitalized older patients, aiming to enhance mobility and reduce fall risk during hospitalization.
Relevant Links
Vanderbilt Memory and Alzheimer's Center
Critical Illness, Brain Dysfunction, and Survivorship (CIBS) Center
Department of Psychology at Vanderbilt University
Division of Geriatric Medicine at Vanderbilt
Center for Quality Aging Profile
Center for Clinical Quality and Implementation Research
Center for Research and Innovation in Health Systems Safety
VA Quality Scholars Program Profile
Publications
Education
MA - Clinical Psychology - Middle Tennessee State University, 1991
PhD - Gerontology - Penn State University, 1998
Contact
Email
Kimryn.Rathmell@Vumc.Org
Address
777 Preston Research Building
2220 Pierce Ave
Nashville, TN 37232-6307