Geriatric Medicine Fellowship

The Geriatric Fellowship curriculum emphasizes both longitudinal & block experiences. Geriatric faculty supervise fellows in all settings. Fellows also receive training with specialists in the areas of geriatric psychiatry, rehabilitation medicine, rheumatology, urology, uro-gynecology, and neurology. Elective time is available for fellows with additional areas of interest.

Sample Schedule

Fellowship Rotations

Longitudinal

Geriatric Outpatient Clinic
Fellows spend one half day per week providing continuity care for their panel of patients at the Center for Healthy Aging.

Long Term Care
Fellows spend one half day per week during the majority of blocks caring for residents at The Hill of Whitemarsh. They work with an interdisciplinary team to provide care for complex older adults

Block Experiences

Outpatient Geriatric Care – Fellows spend three months during the year in our Center for Healthy Aging working with Geriatric attendings. They will spend time with our Memory Assessment clinic, our Alzheimers and Dementia Care Program, and performing comprehensive geriatric assessments, and providing home based primary care. Our practice has achieved Age Friendly Committed to Excellence status and is a SAGE certified LGBTQI+ inclusive practice. During this block fellows spend time with our specialty geriatric oncology clinic, the Senior Adult Oncology Center, providing comprehensive geriatric assessments for older adults with cancer.

Geriatric Consult Service – Fellows spend three months during the year on the inpatient consult service at TJUH. They provide comanagement of older trauma patients and perform consults from other services often for assistance with delirium, behavioral problems in dementia, falls, polypharmacy and other geriatric syndrome management.  During this time, fellows also rotate on our Acute Care of the Elderly Unit (ACE) at Jefferson Methodist Hospital using the 4Ms model to provide care for acutely ill older adults.

Inpatient Palliative Care – Fellows spend six weeks throughout the year rotating on our inpatient palliative care team at TJUH. Fellows gain skills in communication, advance care planning, performing family meetings, establishing hospice eligibility and pain and symptom management. Several of our faculty have dual certification in geriatrics and hospice and palliative medicine, offering fellows this unique perspective.

Postacute/Long Term Care – Fellows spend three months at our two Continuing Care Retirement Communities providing care for short term rehab patients, assisted living and long term care residents. Fellows have the opportunity to work with members of the interprofessional team including physical, occupational and speech therapists, social work, nursing and rehabilitation medicine. Fellows participate in care planning meetings as well as medical director and administrative meetings.

Hospice – Fellows spend one week with one of our inpatient palliative attendings rounding at a local inpatient hospice unit to gain knowledge of hospice regulations and management of end of life care.

Psychiatry – Fellows spend two weeks per year rotating with our Psychiatry Consult Liason Service providing inpatient consults for mental health disorders, substance use disorders and complex delirium management in older adults. There is also time spent with our outpatient Geriatric Psychiatry colleagues managing mental health disorders and dementia with behavioral disturbances.

Program of All Inclusive Care of the Elderly (PACE) – Fellows spend two weeks a year at Trinity Health Mercy Life PACE program learning about all the aspects of this model of care for older adults.

Subspecialty Blocks – Fellows spend two weeks with specialists in the areas of geriatric psychiatry, rehabilitation medicine, urology, uro-gynecology, neuropsychology, and neurology.

Elective – We work with fellows to develop an elective experience around their overall interest. Examples include medical directorship, HIV and aging, LGBTQI+ older adult health, refugee older adult health, addiction medicine, and additional specialty time.