Geriatric Medicine Fellowship Clinical Training
The Geriatric Medicine Fellowship (Internal Medicine) Program strives to train the next generation of leaders to meet the social and healthcare needs of elderly people. The clinical component of our Geriatric Medicine Fellowship Training Program includes the following experiences:
- Ambulatory care
- Inpatient care
- Post-Acute and Long-term care
- House calls
At University Hospitals, our dedication to providing our fellows with flexibility to tailor rotation and elective experiences towards each fellow’s interests, educational needs, and career goals helps set us apart from other geriatric medicine fellowship training programs. Each fellow receive 2 months of elective opportunities. We partner with a number of geriatric care centers and programs to give our fellows diverse experiences which they can carry into their careers.
Longitudinal Clinical Experience
Clinical training at UH is built around continuity, not just exposure. Throughout the fellowship year, fellows maintain a longitudinal presence across four core settings, building patient relationships and clinical depth over time:
- Weekly half-day ambulatory clinic at the University Hospitals Foley ElderHealth Center
- Weekly half-day ambulatory clinic at the VA Geriatric Clinic
- Bimonthly half-day memory care visits
- Bimonthly half-day long-term care visits at Judson Park
- Quarterly half-day house calls through the UH Medical House Calls Program
Rotation Experiences
Fellows rotate through a broad range of clinical settings across the fellowship year, including:
- Inpatient geriatric consult and co-management: Co-manage hospitalized patients and provide geriatrics consultation on the Geriatrics Consult/Co-Management Service, under faculty supervision.
- PACE (Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly): A community-based care model for nursing-home-eligible seniors that functions as case manager, health insurance provider, and primary care provider in one. Experience firsthand how coordinated care helps patients avoid hospitalization and nursing home placement while living safely in the community.
- Geriatrics House Calls Program: Provide primary healthcare services to homebound adults, gaining insight into the challenges and benefits of in-home geriatric care.
- Palliative care and hospice: Learn the principles of palliative medicine and end-of-life care through consultative services for acutely ill hospitalized patients and collaboration with nursing home hospice medical directors.
- Brain Health and Memory Center: Work with neurology faculty and an interdisciplinary team to evaluate and treat cognitive disorders including Alzheimer's disease, vascular dementia, frontotemporal dementia, and parkinsonian-related dementias.
- Rheumatology and perioperative medicine
- Physical medicine and rehabilitation: Care for patients in inpatient and outpatient settings alongside rehabilitation medicine faculty and physical, occupational, and speech therapy staff.
- Geriatric psychiatry: Assess and treat older patients with mood disorders affected by the aging process, working closely with psychiatry specialists.
- Long-term care: Collaborate with nursing staff at Judson Park across assisted living, memory care, post-acute, and long-term care levels, with direct exposure to medical directorship skills.
- Community resources rotation: Build familiarity with services including Adult Protective Services, the Long-Term Care Ombudsman, the Alzheimer's Association, and geriatric care management programs, with the opportunity to observe probate court proceedings and learn the guardianship process.
- Two months of protected elective time: Scholarly project, cardiology, hematology-oncology, gynecologic oncology, wound care, infectious diseases, or uro-gynecology.