Senior LIFE is pleased to welcome James Rummel Jr. D.O. as the organization’s new Chief Medical Officer. Most recently, Dr. Rummel, a native of Edinboro, PA, served as Medical Director at One Senior Care in Erie.  His previous experience includes a residency at Valley Baptist Family Practice in Harlingen, TX, a faith-based program with a heavy emphasis on international missions. His credentials include Diplomat of the American Board of Family Medicine. His duties have taken him to Mexico, and the African nation of Ghana. Dr. Rummel completed his undergraduate studies at Penn State Behrend, which led him to medical school at Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine (LECOM).

In his new position at Senior LIFE, Dr. Rummel is responsible for reviewing cases, managing providers, establishing medical policy, and advising the executive committee on policy and medical decisions. Dr. Rummel acknowledges that the healthcare landscape for seniors has changed post-COVID. “There’s a huge discordance in the United States between where people want to age and eventually pass away versus where they do age and pass away,” he says, citing the fact that more than 60 percent live their final days in a hospital or in a nursing facility setting. “What’s great about the LIFE or PACE models is that we really are empowered to support seniors. As they age, and as they become more informed to support them at home, we can be extremely creative in how we provide that support, which is so unique”.

Dr. Rummel is a strong advocate of the interdisciplinary team model of healthcare that serves as the foundation to LIFE programs. Senior LIFE is mandated by the federal government to have a certain number of professions represented on the interdisciplinary care team. These healthcare professionals meet daily to discuss participants and their needs, and how they can be innovative and responsive in meeting those needs. “It’s our responsibility to take good enough care and to meet their needs so that our participants don’t feel the need to go to the hospital or the emergency room,” says Dr. Rummel. “We can be creative in how we do that. That’s one of the things that makes LIFE or PACE an amazing model of medicine.”