The Geriatrics Division at Flushing Hospital
Medical Center was established in 1987 and has evolved from
an acute in-patient unit of a few beds to a comprehensive
program that now includes fellowship training. It was formerly
affiliated with the Albert Einstein College of Medicine
and is now currently affiliated with Downstate Medical Center
The Geriatric Unit:
The geriatric unit is a 32-bed acute in-patient
unit located on 2 North 2. This unit serves as the main
training site for acute care by fellows and internal medicine
residents. Patient care is delivered through care planning
of the Interdisciplinary Team that meets biweekly, composed
of geriatricians, case manager and social worker, nurse
management and nursing staff, fellows and resident physicians,
physical therapist and speech therapist, pharmacist and
nutritionist. Members of the team are educated and well
sensitized to the needs of patients in the unit resulting
in early assessment, timely intervention and reduction of
complications resulting in significant reduction in length
of stay compared to other Medicare beds in the hospital.
Critical programs that have been successfullly conducted
on the unit include weekly Decubitus and Skin Rounds, a
Falls Prevention Program, Restraints Minimization Program,
and an Advance Directive Recruitment Program. Admission
to the unit is based on strict criteria and can be facilitated
using a "Fast-Track Admissions" protocol.
Consultation Service:
Any physician can request consultation
from the Consult Service to deliver geriatric services to
patients outside the Geriatric Unit.
Geriatric Ambulatory Care:
The areas that comprise ambulatory care
include: Geriatric Clinic that is open to both private
and indignet elderly community patients, Memory Disorders
Clinic that provies geriatric based services to demented
patient, Ambulatory Clinic at Flushing House that
provides outpatient services in an Article 28 system that
was set up in a 345-bed adult home close to Flushing Hospital.
Further arrangements to recruit other Article 28 geriatric
sites are in progress.
Home Visit Program:
Fellows, resident physicians in internal
medicine and supervising faculty members conduct weekly
home visits to homebound patients referred to the division.
Coordinated offorts to keep the patient health and functional
in the home environment minimizes hospitalization. Patients
requiring skilled home care services are referred to the
Jamaica Hospital Home Care Agency and those who are eligible
for long-term home care are referred to the Lombardi Programs
of the affiliated agencies.
Nursing Home Affiliations:
The following nursing homes have a formal
affiliation with the hospital and the Fellowship Program:
Flushing Manor Nursing Home, Flushing Manor Care Center
and William Benenson Rehabilitation Center in Flushing,
NY. In these facilities, faculty members admit patients
and fellows manage long-term and intercurrent disease under
supervision. The division has also recruited several other
nursing homes to participate in the Nursing Home Advisory
Board that gives feedback on quality of care patients of
theirs admitted to the geriatric unit.
Research:
The division actively participates in
various academic and clinical research studies with teh
hope of finding new ways to diagnose and treat the elderly
patient. Faculty members and fellows are members of and
attend annual and periodic meetings of the American Geriatric
Society, Metropolitan American Geriatric Society, and the
Gerontological Society of America.
Fellowship Program:
The accreditation Committee on Graduate
Medical Education approved 4 positions for fellowship training
in geriatric medicine in 1997. The division graduated 2
fellows for the academic year 1997~1998 and currently, there
are 4 fellows in training that are completing a one year
program. Areas of training include: Acute In-Patient Care
Service, Consultation Service, Ambulatory Care Service,
Long Term Service, Home Care Service and Research. There
are three full-time faculty and four part-time faculty members.
Internal Medicine Residency Program:
The division provides exposure to geriatric
medicine to all residents in training in internal medicine
by requiring a one-month rotation in the acute geriatric
unit in both post-graduate levels I and II. Another month
of subspecialty rotation is offered in the P.G.Y. III level.
