School of Nursing

Laura Prouty Sands, PhD Katherine Birck Professor of Nursing Phone: (765) 494-6506 Fax: (765) 494-6339 E-mail: lsands@purdue.edu Full directory listing

Education

Research

Dr. Sands' current research is focused on identifying care pathways that optimize health, functioning and quality of life in older adults, particularly those who are disabled. She is analyzing several large data bases, that include self-reported data, clinical data and medical claims data to understand: 1) risks for loss of functioning and need for long-term care services among older adults, 2) how the type and amount of home-based long-term care services received by disabled older adults affect the amount of time they are able to remain in the community, and 3) how unmet needs for long-term care services affect patients' health and subsequent use of health care services. In addition, Dr. Sands is working with Purdue University biomedical and industrial engineers to develop efficient systems to improve attendance rates to scheduled appointments. Dr. Sands' prior research included determining whether individual dementia patients benefit from pharmaceutical therapy. She has also contributed psychometrically to the development of instruments to assess quality of life in persons with dementia; patient satisfaction; and patient preferences for treatment.

Interests

Research methods Health Services Research and Policy Gerontology Long-term Care Policy Understanding predictors and outcomes of no show behavior

Service and Engagement

Dr. Sands is Director of Research of the School of Nursing at Purdue University. She serves on the graduate education committees of the School of Nursing. She is a member of the steering committee of the Center on Aging and the Life Course at Purdue University.

Teaching

• Biostatistics
• Health Care Policy
• Evidence-based Practice

Grants

Currently Funded Grants

Sands L.P.(PI), Covinsky, K., Craig B., Thomas J., Stallard E., Co-Investigators. (2010-2014) Prognostic Significance of Insufficient ADL Help on Health Outcomes/Utilization. National Institutes of Health, (R01AG034160)

J.M. Leung, (PI), L.P. Sands, J. Kramer, K. Covinsky, A. Wu. (2009-2014) Pathophysiology of post-operative delirium in older patients. National Institute on Aging. (R01 AG031795)

Presentations

• DePalma G*, Xu H, , Covinsky KE, Craig BA, , Stallard PE, Thomas J III, Sands LP,. Insufficient ADL Help and Hospital Readmission. Presented at the 64th annual meeting of the Gerontological Society of America, Boston, MA.

• He S*, Xu H, Sands LP, Stallard PE, Craig BA, Thomas J III, Covinsky KE. Insufficient Personal Assistance for ADL Disability and Risk for Death among Community-Living Older Adults. Presented at the 64th annual meeting of the Gerontological Society of America, Boston, MA.

• Yu D*, Xu H, Stallard PEJ, Sands LP, Craig BA,  Covinsky KE, Thomas J III. Insufficient Help for ADLs Disabilities and Medicare Expenditures. Presented at the 64th annual meeting of the Gerontological Society of America, Boston, MA.

• Sands LP.  Insufficient Personal Assistance for ADL Disability and Risk for Hospitalization among Community-Living Older Adults. Presented at the 63rd annual meeting of the Gerontological Society of America, New Orleans, LA.  The Gerontologist, 50(Sup 1)12-13.

• Pressler KA*, Sands LP, Ferraro KF.  Disease, disability, and devices: what determines older adults’ adoption of mobility assistive devices?  Presented at the 62nd annual meeting of the Gerontological Society of America, New Orleans, LA.  The Gerontologist, 49(Sup 2)363.

• Schmitt EM, Sands LP, Weiss S, Dowling G, Covinsky K.  Quality of  life and adult day health center participation.  Presented at the 62nd annual meeting of the Gerontological Society of America,.  The Gerontologist, 49(Sup 2)34.

• Xu H and Sands LP.  Identifying Community-living ADL-disabled Adults who need Full-time Help. Presented at the 2009 meeting of the American Geriatrics Society, Chicago, IL. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 57(S1), 2009. S126-S127.

• Sands LP, Daggy J, Campbell W, Flynn M, Lemon A.  Obesity and need for long-term care services. Presented at the 2008 meeting of the American Geriatrics Society, Washington DC. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 56(4), 2008.

• Sands LP, Xu H, Weiner M, Rosenman M, Craig B, Thomas J.  Volume of home care received and nursing home admission among community-dwelling Medicaid members with dementia. Presented at the 2007 meeting of the American Geriatrics Society, Seattle, WA.  Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 55(4) s205, 2007.

• Sands LP, Xu H, Weiner M, Rosenmann M, Craig B, Thomas J.  Home and community based services as alternatives to nursing-home care for Medicaid recipients with dementia. Presented at the 59^th annual meeting of the Gerontological Society of America, Dallas, Texas.  The Gerontologist, 46(1)545-546, 2006.

Representative Publications

• *Nuti LA, Lawley M, Turkcan A, Tian Z, Zhang L, Chang K, Willis DR, Sands LP. No-Shows to Primary Care Appointments:  Subsequent Acute Care Utilization among Diabetic Patients, in press, BMC Health Services Research.

• Sands LP, Xu H, Thomas III J, Paul S, Craig BA, Rosenman M, Doebbeling CC, Weiner M. Volume of Home and Community Based Services and Time to Nursing-home Placement, Medicare and Medicaid Research Review, 2(3), E1–E21, 2012. doi: 10.5600/mmrr.002.03.a03

• *DePalma G, Xu H, Covinsky KE, Craig BA, Stallard E, Thomas III J, Sands LP.  Hospital Readmission among Older Adults Who Return Home With Unmet Need for ADL Disability. The Gerontologist, online, doi:10.1093/geront/gns103

• *Xu H, Covinsky KE, Stallard E, Thomas III J, Sands LP.  Insufficient Help for ADL Disabilities and Risk for all-cause Hospitalization, in press, Journal of the American Geriatrics Society,60;927-933, 2012.

• DeCrane SK, Sands L, Ashland M, Lim E, Tsai TL, Paul S, Leung JM.  Factors associated with recovery from early postoperative delirium. Journal of Perianesthesia Nursing, 26(4 ):231-241, 2011. (received the 2012 Mary Hanna Memorial Journalism Award)

• Leung JM, Tsai TL, Sands LP.  Preoperative frailty in older surgical patients is associated with early postoperative delirium.  Anesthesia and Analgesia, 112(5):1199-1201, 2011.

• *Daggy J, Lawley M, Willis D, Thayer D, Suelzer C, DeLaurentis P, Turkan A, Chakraborty S, Sands L. Using no- show modeling to improve clinic performance. Health Informatics Journal, 16(4):246-259, 2010.

• *Young J, Slebodnik M, Sands L.  Bar code technology and medication administration error.  Journal of Patient Safety, 6(2):115-120, 2010.

• Tsai TL, Sands LP, Leung JM. An update on postoperative cognitive dysfunction. Advances inAnesthesia, 28(1):269-284, 2010.

• *Schmidt E, Sands LP, Weiss S, Dowling G, Covinsky K.  Adult day health center participation and health related quality of life, The Gerontologist, 50(4):531-540, 2010.

           *Student, faculty or post-doctoral mentee

Curriculum Vitae

Click here for a full CV for Laura Prouty Sands. (an Adobe Acrobat file)