Wasserman goes the distance

Editor’s Note: Wasserman’s term as president of the California Association of Long Term Care Medicine ended in early October 2020.

In 2019, Michael Wasserman competed in the grueling IronMan World Championship in Kona, HI. The year before, he took a six-week driving tour of all 74 nursing homes in the California chain he led at the time.

One might think endurance is the 61-year-old’s speciality.

But Wasserman’s true passion is for geriatrics and long-term care, an industry he has worked to improve since he entered it in the late 1980s. Never has he done that more visibly than since March, when the president of the California Association of Long Term Care Medicine began a highly public campaign against COVID-19 and what he saw as government ineptitude.

Wasserman has made near-daily appearances on national media outlets and used Twitter to advise skilled nursing providers about the latest scientific findings during the pandemic. He warned that senior care facilities could become “killing fields,” and he has lambasted the federal government for failing to deliver needed supplies and guidance.

When news broke about the first U.S. outbreak in Kirkland, WA, Wasserman was planning to spend more time with his two grandkids and considering his professional options after leaving Rockport Healthcare Services over a management dispute. Those plans were sidelined when he felt instinctively that the pandemic was a threat to the elderly. He worried California could have 50 Kirklands.

“I’ve been outspoken my whole life. When I was nine years old, I wrote a letter to President Johnson asking him to end the Vietnam War,” Wasserman said. “[During COVID] I was worried I was going to sound like the Boy Who Cried Wolf. But I’ve always prided myself on my ability to be transparent.”

Wasserman helped develop protocols for isolation and infection control, penning a white paper with CALTCM colleagues that laid out an “aspirational” model for the state to use when developing COVID-19 units.

Wasserman’s appreciation for vulnerable older residents — and the frontline staff caring for them — was influenced early in life by close relationships with his grandparents. His grandfather, Louis Slutske, stoked his ongoing love for the Dodgers. They’d take in local horse races with Wasserman’s grandmother, Raye, and visit extended relatives in Chicago.

Those experiences inspired a medical career that became senior-focused early. He is currently part-time medical director of Eisenberg Village at Los Angeles Jewish Home.

“Those of us out there who work in this space appreciate having somebody who represents the industry who can talk articulately about what goes on in skilled nursing facilities,” says Chad Worz, PharmD, CEO of the American Society of Consultant Pharmacists.

Recently, Wasserman worked with government officials and other healthcare professionals on a framework to inform the government’s eventual COVID-19 vaccine distribution effort.

Between media gigs and policy work, he continues his athletic pursuits. In recent months, that has meant donning an N-95 mask to shield himself from wildfire smoke during eight-mile runs near his home in Thousand Oaks.

Wasserman was asthmatic as a child and never ran a mile until age 32, but then did 10 marathons in the 1990s before switching to triathlons. He completed his first IronMan six months after crushing his hip socket in a bike crash.

“As a geriatrician, I tell all of my patients to exercise,” he says. “I do believe in leading by example.”

Resume: 1980, Earns bachelor’s degree from UC Irvine; 1985, Earns M.D. from University of Texas; 1989, Completes UCLA fellowship in geriatric medicine; 1990-1994, Works in home care, geriatrics and continuing care for Kaiser-Permanente; 1996-2001, Holds executive roles at GeriMed of America; 2001-2010, Founds and runs Senior Care of Colorado; 2015, Becomes AMDA-certified medical director; 2015, Joins UCLA medical school faculty; 2015, Named president, California Association of Long Term Care Medicine; 2017-2018, Joins Rockport Healthcare, becomes CEO; 2019, Becomes medical director of Eisenberg Village, LA Jewish Home; 2020, Appointed to National Academies’ coronavirus vaccine committee.