Albert Einstein Medical Center offers an ACGME-accredited Geriatrics Fellowship for physicians who have completed Internal Medicine or Family Practice residencies and wish to obtain additional training for clinical, academic or administrative careers in Geriatric Medicine.

Residency and medical student electives are also offered.

We also have several active clinical research programs/activities ongoing or under development. Faculty/fellow research interests include Quality of Life in the elderly; attitudes towards the elderly and geriatrics; preventive medicine and screening in the elderly; pain management in the elderly, long-term and terminal care.

Faculty/Staff:

• Richard Grant, MD, MPH, CMD, Division Chair
• Claudine Clarke, MD
• Loretta Dugan, MSW
• Tahmina Hassan, MD
• Susan Moyer, MD, Medical Director, Stapeley in Germantown
• Janice Fey, RN, MSN
• Ellen Zagrebelsky, MD
• Vladimir Zagrebelsky, MD

The primary strength of the program is the breadth of clinical experiences in geriatrics including inpatient primary care and consultation, outpatient primary care and consultation, nursing home care, home care, community as well as academic practice sites, hospice, and home visits. These many venues afford a wealth of opportunity for geriatric residents to provide care for a wide variety of common acute medial and surgical problems such as pneumonia and other pulmonary conditions, urinary, renal, and gastrointestinal disorders, strokes and cardiovascular conditions, diabetes, dementia and delirium, hip fractures, transplants, etc. The various facilities available for the education of geriatric residents are:

The Albert Einstein Medical Center, a large urban teaching hospital, is the major acute care facility of the Albert Einstein Healthcare Network. The hospital offers primary care to residents of north and northeast Philadelphia as well as tertiary care to a larger area. The hospital includes a 30-bed gero-psychiatry unit. There is a geriatric assessment team that does consults for the inpatient services on frail elderly patients and can, when appropriate, follow the patients in the outpatient clinic or at home after discharge.

Willowcrest is a 102 bed subacute facility on the campus of the Albert Einstein Medical Center. The average stay of residents at Willowcrest is 20 days. The patients are admitted primarily for physical therapy, wound care, or intravenous treatment. Many attending physicians care for their patients in Willowcrest. The geriatric residents are involved in primary patient care for Geriatrics service patients at Willowcrest, as well as functioning as consultants and medical director trainees. They are also involved in quality management functions, regulatory surveys and utilization review.

Moss Rehabilitation Hospital is a 147 bed acute rehabilitation hospital. The geriatric program includes stroke and arthritis rehabilitation as well as care of patients with recent fractures. There is also an active outpatient rehabilitation program at the site. The residents work with a physiatry attending and function much as a physiatry resident during this rotation. Geriatric residents have the opportunity to work closely with physical, occupation and speech therapists.

The Glendale Uptown Home for the Aged is a 220 bed skilled and intermediate care nursing home about 6 miles from the AEMC campus. This allows geriatric residents the opportunity to gain experience in a nursing home.

A structured inpatient geriatric psychiatry experience exposes the geriatric resident to patients with acute psychotic depression, behavioral disturbances associated with dementia, and milieu therapy. An outpatient geropsych rotation is provided for fellows to provide consults at nursing homes in the company of a geriatric psychiatrist.

Administrative linkage on subspecialty level. All the department of medicine subspecialties have a common administration run by a common fellowship coordinator, There is a common subspecialty manual in an attempt to avoid redundant efforts by subspecialty program directors. In addition, combined subspecialty research conferences build camaraderie to help disseminate research concepts. More combined fellowship activities are planning for the coming years.

Clinical Programs

• Einstein Geriatrics Associates, Klein Bldg.
  5501 Old York Rd.
  Philadelphia, PA 19141
  (215)456-8608
  Geriatric Assessment Team (Inpatient, Outpatient, Home)
  Geriatric Home Visit Program
• Prime Health 
  8556 Bustleton Ave.
  Philadelphia, PA 19152
  (215) 333-3500

Patient information:

Call 215-456-8608 for appointments at our Einstein offices, house calls, or information about Geriatric Assessment/consultation programs.

Call 215-333-3500 for appointments at Prime Health in Northeast Philadelphia.

Call 1-800-EINSTEIN for information/appointments about other programs of Albert Einstein Medical Center.

Other gerontology/geriatrics links:

American Geriatrics Society
American Medical Directors Association
Gerontological Society of America
National Institute on Aging
Philadelphia Corporation for Aging