With over 20 years of personal and professional experience in home-based care, I work at the intersection of research and policy, building a strong evidence base to drive meaningful organizational, state and national improvements to home-based services. My program of research specifically focuses on supporting the front-line home care workers who provide vital day-to-day care and more effectively integrating them into care teams. This work leverages the expertise of an essential workforce that is often marginalized and excluded from decision-making around patient care. I have led a number of studies exploring home care workers’ contributions to quality care and the unique emotional demands of this work and piloted collaborative interventions to support, grow and sustain the workforce.

Publications

Dawson CM, Kelley L, Dryden EM, Hung WW, Moo LR, Ding M, Franzosa E. Healthcare Leadership Perspectives on Priority‐Setting, Geriatrics and Rural Care, and Effective Advocacy Strategies: Lessons from the Veterans Health Administration. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. 2025 Oct.

Hall L, Koufacos N, Ali I, Franzosa E. Visualizing Veterans’ Care at Home: Understanding the Structure, Function, and Adequacy of Caregiving Networks. Journal of Applied Gerontology. 2025 Sep 8:07334648251372365.

Harris-Gersten M, Franzosa E, Decosimo K, Webb S, Anderson L, Byrd K, Webster A, Tucker M, Christensen L, McKenzie JL, Schoeps D. Empowering Older Veterans Through Self-Directed Care: A Mixed Methods Evaluation of a Technology Enabled Respite Homecare Model Pilot. Journal of Applied Gerontology. 2025 Aug 27:07334648251371960.

David D, Moreines LT, Boafo J, Kim P, Franzosa E, Schulman-Green D, Brody AA, Aldridge MD. " Who You Are and Where You Live Matters": Hospice Care in New York City During COVID-19 Perspectives on Hospice and Social Determinants: A Rapid Qualitative Analysis. Journal of palliative medicine. 2025 Jan;28(1):59-68.

Wyte-Lake T, Dobalian A, Solorzano JE, Hall LM, Franzosa E. VHA Support for Home Health Agency Staff and Patients During Natural Disasters. Fed Pract. 2024;41(10). Published online October 26. doi:10.12788/fp.0513

Van Houtven CH, Decosimo K, Drake C, Bruening R, Sperber NR, Dadolf J, Tucker M, Coffman CJ, Grubber JM, Stechuchak KM, Kota S…Franzosa E…Wang V. Implementation outcomes from a multi‐site stepped wedge cluster randomized family caregiver skills training trial. Health Services Research. 2024 Dec;59(6):e14361.

Franzosa E, Kim PS, Moreines LT, McDonald MV, David D, Boafo J, Schulman-Green D, Brody AA, Aldridge MD. Navigating a “Good Death” During COVID-19: Understanding Real-Time End-of-Life Care Structures, Processes, and Outcomes Through Clinical Notes. The Gerontologist. 2024 Oct;64(10):gnae099.

Estrada LV, Watman D, Franzosa E, Reckrey JM. When Do Paid Caregivers Support the Health of Older Adults? Geriatrician Perspectives. Journal of Applied Gerontology. 2024 Aug 9:07334648241270070.

Reckrey JM, Russell D, Fong MC, Burgdorf JG, Franzosa EC, Travers JL, Ornstein KA. Home Care Worker Continuity in Home-Based Long-Term Care: Associated Factors and Relationships with Client Health and Well-Being. Innovation in Aging. 2024 Mar 1;8(3):igae024.

Blok AC, Drake C, Decosimo K, Zullig LL, Hughes JM, Sperber NR, Kota S, Franzosa E, Coffman CJ, Shepherd‐Banigan M, Chadduck T. Adaptations and early adoption of a family caregiver intervention in the Veterans Affairs Health Care System: A multimethod pragmatic approach for national scaling. Health Services Research. 2024.

Quach ED, Franzosa E, Zhao S, Ni P, Hartmann CW, Moo LR. Home and Community-Based Service Use Varies by Health Care Team and Comorbidity Level of Veterans with Dementia. Journal of Gerontological Social Work. 2024 Feb 17;67(2):242-57.

Reckrey JM, Watman D, Perez S, Franzosa E, Ornstein KA, Tsui E. Paid Caregiving in Dementia Care Over Time: Paid Caregiver, Family Caregiver, and Geriatrician Perspectives. The Gerontologist. 2024 May 25:gnae055.

Xu EL, Watman D, Franzosa E, Perez S, Reckrey JM. Home Care Workers Providing Person-Centered Care to People with Dementia. Journal of Applied Gerontology. 2024 May 7:07334648241252010.

Schulman-Green D, David D, Moreines LT, Boafo J, Franzosa E, Kim P, McDonald MV, Brody AA, Aldridge MD. Towards a crisis management playbook: Hospice and palliative team members’ views amid COVID-19. Journal of Pain and Symptom Management. 2024 Sep 18.

Franzosa E, Judon KM, Gottesman EM, Koufacos NS, Runels T, Augustine M, Van Houtven CH, Boockvar KS. Improving Care Coordination Between Veterans Health Administration Primary Care Teams and Community Home Health Aide Providers: A Qualitative Study. Journal of Applied Gerontology. 2023 Apr;42(4):552-60.

Franzosa E, Kim P, Reckrey JM, Zhang M, Xu E, Aldridge MD, Federman AD, Ornstein KA. Care disruptions and end-of-life care experiences among home-based primary care patients during the COVID-19 pandemic in New York City: A retrospective chart review. American Journal of Hospice and Palliative Medicine. 2023 Feb;40(2):225-34.

Xu EL, Kim PS, Yee C, Zhang M, Reckrey JM, Lubetsky S, Zhao D, Ornstein KA, Franzosa E. “I Depend on Her for Everything”: A Retrospective Chart Review of Home Care Worker Service Disruptions for Homebound Older Adults During the COVID-19 Pandemic. Journal of Applied Gerontology. 2023 Apr;42(4):561-70.

Rogers M, Heitner R, Frydman JL, Bowman B, Meier DE, Aldridge M, Franzosa E. Perceptions of Palliative Care Program Viability During the Pandemic: Qualitative Results from a National Survey. American Journal of Hospice and Palliative Medicine. 2023 Jan 13:10499091231152610.

Fong MC, Russell D, Gao O, Franzosa E. Contextual forces shaping home-based health care services between 2010 and 2020: insights from the social-ecological model and organizational theory. The Gerontologist. 2023 Sep 1;63(7):1117-28.

Aldridge MD, Franzosa E, Kim P, Xu E, Reckrey J, Zhang M, Zhao D, Ornstein KA. Disruptions in home hospice care due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Journal of palliative medicine. 2023 Feb 1;26(2):244-7.

Gorbenko K, Baim‐Lance A, Franzosa E, Wurtz H, Schiller G, Masse S, Ornstein KA, Federman A, Levine DM, DeCherrie LV, Leff B. A national qualitative study of Hospital‐at‐Home implementation under the CMS Acute Hospital Care at Home waiver. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. 2023 Jan;71(1):245-58.

Shalev A, Ringel JB, Riegel B, Vellone E, Stawnychy MA, Safford M, Goyal P, Tsui E, Franzosa E, Reckrey J, Sterling M. Does connectedness matter? The association between mutuality and job satisfaction among home health aides caring for adults with heart failure. Journal of Applied Gerontology. 2023 Apr;42(4):747-57.

Cole HV, Franzosa E. advancing urban health equity in the United States in an age of health care gentrification: a framework and research agenda. International Journal for Equity in Health. 2022 Dec;21(1):1-0.

Franzosa E, Wyte-Lake T, Tsui EK, Reckrey JM, Sterling MR. Essential but excluded: building disaster preparedness capacity for home health care workers and home care agencies. Journal of the American Medical Directors Association. 2022 Dec 1;23(12):1990-6.

Russell D, Fong M, Oude G, Lowenstein D, Haas M, Wiggins F, Brickner C, Franzosa E. Formative evaluation of a workforce investment organization to provide scaled training for home health aides serving managed long-term care plan clients in New York State. Journal of Applied Gerontology. 2022 Apr 14. doi: 07334648221084182.

Reckrey JM, Watman D, Tsui EK, Franzosa E, Perez S, Fabius CD, Ornstein KA. “I Am the Home Care Agency”: The dementia family caregiver experience managing paid care in the home. International journal of environmental research and public health. 2022 Jan 25;19(3):1311.

Franzosa E, Judon K, Gottesman E, Koufacos N, Runels T, Augustine M, Hartmann C, Boockvar K. Home Health Aides’ increased role in supporting older veterans and primary healthcare teams during COVID-19: A qualitative analysis. J General Internal Medicine. 2022 Mar 22:1-8. doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11606-021-07271-w

Reckrey JM, Perez S, Watman D, Ornstein KA, Russell D, Franzosa E. The need for stability in paid dementia care: Family caregiver perspectives. Journal of Applied Gerontology. 2022 May 5:07334648221097692.

Boockvar KS, Koufacos NS, May J, Schwartzkopf AL, Guerrero VM, Judon KM, Schubert CC, Franzosa E, Dixon BE. Effect of health information exchange plus a care transitions intervention on post-hospital outcomes among VA primary care patients: A randomized clinical trial. Journal of General Internal Medicine. 2022 Feb 23:1-8.

Franzosa E, Mak W, Burack O, Wiggins F, Hokenstad A, Boockvar K, Reinhardt, J. Perspectives of certified nursing assistants and administrators on staffing the nursing home frontline during the COVID-19 pandemic. Health Services Research. 2022;1–9. doi: 10.1111/1475-6773.13954

Tsui E, Franzosa E, Vignola E, Cuervo I, Zelnick J, Landsbergis P, Baron S. Recognizing careworkers’ contributions to improving the social determinants of health: A call for supporting healthy carework. New Solutions. 2021 Dec 16:10482911211066963.

Sullivan JL, Yousefi-Nooraie R, D’Arcy D, Levine A, Zimmerman L, Shin MH, Franzosa E, Hung W, Intrator O. Hospital in Home: Evaluating Need and Readiness for Implementation (HENRI) in the Department of Veterans Affairs: protocol for a mixed-methods evaluation and participatory implementation planning study. Implementation Science Communications. 2022 Aug 29;3(1):93.

Reckrey JM, Boerner K, Franzosa E, Bollens-Lund E, Ornstein KA. Paid caregivers in the community-based dementia care team: Do family caregivers benefit?. Clinical Therapeutics. 2021 Jun 1;43(6):930-41.

Franzosa E, Hwang U, Genovesi M, Intrator O, Edes T, Malone M. “I’m not staying in the hospital tonight”: How Emergency Departments can leverage health and social services at home to support care transitions for older patients. Journal of Geriatric Emergency Medicine. 2021;2(8):1.

Mak W, Franzosa E, Burack O, Reinhardt JP. Research needed on microlearning as a training strategy for CNAs in skilled nursing facilities. Journal of the American Medical Directors Association. 2021 Dec; 22(12): 2610–2611.

Franzosa E, Traylor M, Judon KM, Guerrero Aquino V, Schwartzkopf AL, Boockvar KS, Dixon BE. Perceptions of event notification following discharge to improve geriatric care: qualitative interviews of care team members from a 2-site cluster randomized trial. Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association. 2021 28(8), pp.1728-1735.

Ritchie CS, Gallopyn N, Sheehan O, Sharieff SA, Franzosa E, Gorbenko K, Ornstein KA, Federman AD, Brody AA, Leff B. COVID challenges and adaptations among home-based primary care practices: Lessons for an ongoing pandemic from a national survey. J Am Med Dir Assoc. 2021 Jul 1;22(7):1338-44.

Franzosa E, Gorbenko K, Brody AA, Leff B, Ritchie CS, Kinosian B, Sheehan OC, Federman AD, Ornstein KA. “There is something very personal about seeing someone’s face”: Provider perceptions of video visits in home-based primary care during COVID-19. Journal of Applied Gerontology. 2021 Nov;40(11):1417-24.

Koufacos NS, May J, Judon KM, Franzosa E, Dixon BE, Schubert CC, Schwartzkopf AL, Guerrero VM, Traylor M, Boockvar KS. Improving patient activation among older veterans: Results from a social worker-led care transitions intervention. Journal of Gerontological Social Work. 2021 May 31:1-5.

Quach ED, Franzosa E, Moo LR, Hartmann CW. Clinician Experiences Delivering Dementia Caregiver Support Services During COVID-19. The American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry. 2021 May 1;29(5):511-2.

Reckrey JM, Boerner K, Franzosa E, Bollens-Lund E, Ornstein KA. Paid Caregivers in the Community-Based Dementia Care Team: Do Family Caregivers Benefit? Clinical Therapeutics. 2021 Jun 1;43(6):930-41.

Gorbenko K, Franzosa E, Masse S, Brody AA, Sheehan O, Kinosian B, Ritchie CS, Leff B, Ripp J, Ornstein KA, Federman AD. “I felt useless”: a qualitative examination of COVID-19’s impact on home-based primary care providers in New York. Home health care services quarterly. 2021 Apr 3;40(2):121-35.

Kalicki AV, Moody KA, Franzosa E, Gliatto PM, Ornstein KA. Barriers to telehealth access among homebound older adults. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. 2021 Sep;69(9):2404-11.

Franzosa E, Gorbenko K, Brody AA, Leff B, Ritchie CS, Kinosian B, Ornstein KA, Federman AD. “At home, with care”: Lessons from New York City home‐based primary care practices managing COVID‐19. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. 2021 Feb;69(2):300-6.

Tsui EK, Franzosa E, Reckrey JM, LaMonica M, Cimarolli VR, Boerner K. Interventions to reduce the impact of client death on home care aides: Employers’ perspectives. Journal of Applied Gerontology. 2021 Feb 1:0733464821989859.

Franzosa E, Tsui EK. Professional, friend or family?: How home care companies sell emotional care. Journal of Women & Aging. 2020;32(4). doi: 10.1080/08952841.2020.1763894

Tsui EK, Wang WQ, Franzosa E, Gonzalez T, Reckrey JM, Sterling MR, Baron S. Training to reduce Home Care Aides' work stress associated with patient death: A scoping review. Journal of Palliative Medicine. 2019 Dec 18. doi:10.1089/jpm.2019.0441

Bernstein M, Cinnick S, Franzosa E, Murman M, Freudenberg N. Rationale and design of distance-based training to persuade local health department employees that addressing social determinants of health is their job, too. Journal of Public Health Management & Practice. 2019 Sep 1;25(5):448-53

Tsui EK, Franzosa E. Elicitation as a multi-layered process: An experiment in reciprocal peer interviewing. International Journal of Qualitative Methods. 2018 Sept;17(1).

Tsui EK, Franzosa E, Cribbs K, Baron S. Home Care Workers’ experiences of client death and disenfranchised grief. Qualitative Health Research. 2019;9(3).

Franzosa E, Tsui EK, Baron S. “Who's caring for us?”: Understanding and addressing the effects of emotional labor on home health aides' well-being. The Gerontologist. 2019;59(6).

Franzosa E, Tsui EK, Baron S. Home Health Aides’ perceptions of quality care: Goals, challenges and implications for a rapidly changing industry. New Solutions. 2018 Feb; 27(4).

Freudenberg N, Franzosa E, Chisholm J, Libman K. New approaches for moving upstream: How state and local health departments can transform practice to reduce health inequalities. Health Education & Behavior. 2015 Apr; 42(1 suppl):46S-56S.

Freudenberg N, Franzosa E, Sohler N, Li R, Devlin H, Albu J. The state of evaluation research on food policies to reduce obesity and diabetes among adults in the United States, 2000–2011. Preventing Chronic Disease. 2015;12.

Presentations

Selected Invited Talks:

Franzosa E. Honoring Older Adults’ Desire to Age in Place: A Research Program to Leverage Home Health Aide Services in Veteran Care. Collaborative on Caregiving Science Across the Lifecourse (CSAL). March 2025.

Franzosa E. VA Geriatrics and Extended Care Data Analysis Center: Seminar - Honoring Veterans’ Desire to Age in Place: Building a Research Program to Leverage VA Home Health Aide Support. Dec 2024.

Moderator/organizer, The Guiding an Improved Dementia Experience (GUIDE) Model and Implications for the Dementia Care Workforce. NIA AWARD Network webinar, Dec 6, 2023.

Franzosa E. 2023 Gateway Long Term Care Conference. Invited panelist: From Research to Practice: Informing Long Term Care Policy through Economic Evidence. Washington, DC, Nov 2023

Moderator/organizer, Supporting an Aging Population: Perspectives from the Hill. NIA AWARD Network webinar, April 5, 2023.

Franzosa E. Advancing urban health equity in the age of health care gentrification: An expanded framework for understanding health care access. Barcelona Laboratory for Urban Environmental Justice and Sustainability/MIT Department of Urban Studies and Planning. Barcelona, Spain, Sept 2021.

Reckrey J, Franzosa E. Invited presentation: Caring together: How leveraging paid caregivers’ expertise can improve home-based medical care. American Academy of Home Care Medicine, 2021.

Franzosa E. Supporting Older Veterans’ Engagement in and Retention of Home Health Aide Services. Bronx Veteran and Caregiver Research Advisory Council. Nov 16, 2021

Cole H, Franzosa E. The Impact of Health Care Gentrification on Access to Care Among Vulnerable Residents in Four Mid-size US Cities. Association for Public Policy and Management International Conference, Barcelona, Spain, July 2019.

Franzosa E. The Implications of Client Death for Home Care Workers: Intersections of Emotional and Financial Precarity. International Care Ethics Research Consortium (CERC). Portland, OR, July 2018.

Franzosa E. Invited talk: “We’re on our own”: Economic and emotional precarity in Home Care work. Rutgers School of Management and Labor Relations, Center for Work and Health, November 15, 2018.