Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) is a teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School. It consists of 673 licensed beds and is a level 1 trauma center located in Boston, MA. The Division of Gerontology at BIDMC has a strong presence in the outpatient and inpatient setting of the medical center. The division’s faculty is composed of a group of acclaimed geriatricians who have diverse interests and backgrounds and are the attending of record for Senior Health patients and Hebrew SeniorLife patients admitted to the hospital. They are also responsible for a robust consult service, which is well utilized by the medical and surgical services of the hospital. Residents and medical students also rotate on this service.
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center Block Information:
The BIDMC rotation provides trainees the experience of managing acute issues of complex geriatric patients in the hospital setting. The rotation consists of two four-week blocks with each four-week block paired with a four-week elective block. This pairing allows the trainee on the inpatient/consult block and the trainee on the elective block to work as a team for coverage of the hospital service.
This exciting rotation allows trainees to hone their inpatient skills and to learn how to approach a complex acutely ill geriatric patient from two different perspectives; one as the primary service and the other from a consultative viewpoint.
The focus of the inpatient service is not just treatment of the acute medical issue, but learning to address acute medical issues in the context of an individual’s preferences, social supports, and needs. Trainees will do this with the support of an attending geriatrician by leading the housestaff team in the acute care of geriatric medicine patients. Trainees will direct rounds, teach housestaff, and communicate with patients, families, and case management as needed. They will learn how to coordinate a safe discharge and identify ways to prevent unnecessary readmissions.
The inpatient consult service provides consultative care to medical and surgical services. The trainee will learn how to provide effective consultative care and will be exposed to a wide range of geriatric issues ranging from preoperative evaluation, medical management of a geriatric surgical patient, delirium prevention and management, and goals of care discussions.