Florida Hospital plays the waiting game

as lawmakers decide on a bill that would make its facility a state designated memory disorder clinic.

For the past three years, Florida Hospital has been running a clinic for patients who have dementia and Alzheimer’s. But the hospital is waiting to see if amid the chaotic last few days of this legislative session, lawmakers will pass a bill that would designate it as a memory disorder clinic.

Memory disorder clinics, 15 of which are established across the state, including one at Orlando Health in Orange County, are charged with diagnosis and support of patients who have dementia.

Getting the state designation would not only link Florida Hospital’s current clinic to the existing network of memory disorder clinics, but would also raise its profile and increase its chances of receiving state or federal grants to expand services, said Dr. Rosemary Laird, a geriatrician at Florida Hospital Medical Group, who has been involved with efforts to get the state designation.

With the growing and aging population of Central Florida, local experts say that establishing another state-designated clinic could help increase access.

“It brings another option for families who have to find a good provider as close as possible to them,” said Nancy Squillacioti, executive director of Alzheimer’s & Dementia Resource Center in Orlando. “We’re not sure how [Florida Hospital] is going to run it, but it has the potential to be great.”

The growing network of clinics came to exist after the Florida Legislature passed the Alzheimer’s Disease Initiative in 1985 to prepare the state for the increasing number of Floridians affected by Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia.

Aside from providing diagnostic and medical care, memory disorder clinics also have a significant social role in the community by providing support to caregivers and connecting them with training and community resources.

Between July 2015 and June 2016, the clinics trained more than 7,100 caregivers on how to care for their loved one, according to the latest report by the state Department of Elder Affairs.

“I always tell people that we know that the epidemic of Alzheimer’s disease is here and 5 million Americans live with it,” said Laird.

“But there’s also a silent epidemic,” she said. There are more than 15 million unpaid caregivers in the U.S. who care for a loved with with Alzheimer’s or other dementias, according to Alzheimer’s Association.

The clinics receive funding each year from the state and nearly lost all that funding this year in a Senate budget proposal.

At Orlando Health’s Center for Aging & Memory Disorder Clinic, which was established in 1995 and has been Central Florida’s only state-designated clinic so far, the state funds are used for education and training and the salary of two social workers, said Dr. David Smuckler, a geriatrician and medical director of the clinic.

Without the funding, those programs and jobs are likely to go away, unless the health system decides to pick up the tab.

But Smuckler and others who have been following the issue think they’ve dodged the bullet and expect to receive funding for at least one more year.

They will know for sure once the budget is approved.