Geriatrics

A healthcare provider helps an elderly patient.

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About our teams

Ambulatory Care

The OHSU Ambulatory Geriatrics Program provides primary and consultative care to older adults across the state of Oregon and beyond. All 12 of OHSU's Internal Medicine and Geriatrics Primary Care sites are recognized as an "Age-Friendly Health System – Commited to Care Excellence” by the Institute for Healthcare Improvement. This distinction notes that OHSU:

Is guided by an essential set of age-friendly, evidence-based practices across the 4Ms (What Matters, Medication, Mentation, and Mobility);
Causes no harm; and
Is consistent with What Matters to the older adult and their family.

We are honored to receive this recognition! Thanks to all of our providers, care givers, and staff for contributing to our success.

Ambulatory Geriatrics Faculty

Inpatient Geriatrics Care

The OHSU Inpatient Geriatrics Program has been providing high quality geriatric care for older adults admitted to our hospital since 2015. Our team of geriatric specialists works hand in hand with medicine and surgical teams to reduce the hazards posed to older adults from the hospital environment and to adapt their care to their unique needs. We work with interdisciplinary teams to coordinate ongoing care needs after the hospital and make connections to primary care and other outpatient specialists with the goal of a smooth transition home. We also advocate for and assist with individualized advance care planning to ensure the care received supports the goals of every patient and their loved ones. Our team works side by side with the Trauma Surgery program to provide integrated geriatric care for older adults with injuries. This novel collaboration has been cited by the American College of Surgeons’ Trauma Verification program as a unique and significant asset to OHSU’s Trauma Program. Our inpatient staff are sought after educators and champions of system improvements to enhance the care received by all older adults at OHSU. We are involved in developing new care pathways like the hip fracture standard of care, improving cognitive care via development of delirium treatment protocols adapted to specific patient populations and adapting our electronic medical record to support safer prescribing for older adults.

Geriatrics Inpatient Faculty

Long-Term Care

The OHSU Long-Term Care Program includes two skilled nursing and long term care/memory care sites – The Mirabella and Holladay Park Plaza. We have built collaborative work groups at each site with an emphasis on team building and communication between long term care staff, on-site providers, and hospital care management teams. We also have a 2 week curriculum for interns that focuses on transitions of care in and out of skilled nursing. We explore geriatric syndromes, deprescribing, implicit bias as it relates to age, and social determinates of health as they related to geriatric populations. We also serve as a primary continuity long term care preceptorship site for geriatric fellows.

Long-Term Care Faculty

In the news

“Bedside tests for a ‘slam-dunk’ delirium diagnosis.” ACP Internist. November 2022

“OHSU Doc talks falls prevention awareness week.” Interviewed by Emily Burris and Ken Boddie. KOIN Portland. September 23, 2021.

“Ease Winter Health Woes.” Written by Catherine Roberts. Consumer Reports. January 24, 2021.

Recent awards

OHSU Geriatrics Program: US News and World Report Best Hospitals for Geriatrics 2012-23

Health and Aging Policy Fellowship 2022-2023
-Elizabeth Foy White-Chu

Research

Tideswell Emerging Leaders in Aging Scholarship, 2022
-Laura Byerly, MD, Katie Schenning, MD, MPH

Geriatric Academic Career Award, 2019-2023
-Laura Byerly, MD

Tideswell Emerging Leaders in Aging Scholarship, 2021
-Emily Morgan, MD

Public Health Week Research Showcase, Top Poster 2023
-Lisa Miura, MD

Teaching

OHSU School of Medicine: Preceptor of the Year Award, 2023
-Lisa Miura, MD

Clinical

Clinical faculty named “Top Medical Providers,” Portland Monthly Magazine, between 2020-2023
                -Nicholas Kinder, NP
   -Elizabeth Eckstrom, MD, MPH
                -Lisa Miura, MD
                -Jessica Wright, PA
                -Katie Drago, MD
                -Emily Morgan, MD

Selected education projects

1. A Novel Curriculum to Train Physician Assistant Students to Become Healthcare Leaders

PI: Jessica Wright, PA

Designed curriculum for PA students to receive an introduction to leadership skills and assessed the impact of the pilot on comfort engaging in difficult conversations with a significant power differential, comfort using tools for healthcare system change, and comfort in being an effective listener.

2. Optimizing interprofessional geriatric education to build age friendly health systems in rural Oregon

PI: Laura Byerly, MD

Career development award focused on interprofessional geriatric education projects at the undergraduate medical education and continuing medical education levels.

3. Implementation of Wound Healing Curriculum for Medical Students

PIs: E. Foy White-Chu, MD, Enjae Jung, MD

Evaluating feasibility of implementation of wound healing curriculum. The curriculum starts with online self-directed modules prior to hands on workship. With COVID the curriculum was vastly changed from hands on workshop to virtual teaching. We will be contrasting/comparing the different modalities and efficacy in knowledge assessment.

4. ADVANCE-PC (Aligning Dementia and adVANce Care planning Education in Primary Care)

PI: Annette Totten; Co-I: Elizabeth Eckstrom, MD

Assessing the feasibility and acceptability of 1) a remote learning platform for primary care providers and teams about ACP in the context of dementia and 2) approaches to ACP procedures, documentation, and data that can be used to create pragmatic outcome measures for future research and quality improvement projects.

Selected publications

School of Medicine General Internal Medicine

General Internal Medicine

About our teams

In the news

Recent awards