The UC San Diego Geriatrics Fellowship Program provides a wide variety of quality clinical experiences. Some examples are listed below.
UC San Diego Medical Center – Fellows complete a rotation in the geriatric psychiatry inpatient unit in Hillcrest, where they are introduced to acute and chronic cognitive and psychiatric problems encountered in hospitalized elderly patients. They also rotate on the new geriatrics trauma consult service, along with the palliative care service, in addition to population health and post-acute care visits at Skilled Nursing Facilities. In 2021-22, a new rotation will also be added at the UC San Diego Owen HIV Clinic.
UC San Diego Geriatric Medicine Clinic – Provides a continuity clinic experience for participating fellows.
This outpatient clinic, located in La Jolla, is solely devoted to the care of patients age 65 and older and has six board-certified internists with sub-specialty certification (CAQ) in Geriatrics. This clinic provides primary care to patients, in addition to providing consults on medically complex patients.
VA San Diego Healthcare System – At the VA, fellows work with a geriatrics team of attendings uniquely positioned to provide supervision as patients transition from acute, consultative, sub acute, skilled, rehab, home, and hospice and palliative care, as appropriate. Fellows also complete a rotation within the VA Home-Based Primary Care (HBPC) Program, a home care program that provides comprehensive, interdisciplinary, longitudinal primary care in the homes of veterans with complex medical, social, and behavioral conditions for whom routine clinic-based care is not effective. The VA also provides a continuity clinic experience for fellows.
Sample Schedule – Schedules vary per year, with an opportunity to tailor the schedule some to the interests of individual fellows. However, below is a sample overview.
Silverado Senior Living, Encinitas Silverado Senior Living is a residential care facility for older adults with dementia and functional impairment. Fellows learn how to provide care for an extremely frail population and enhance their skills in dementia care.
The Elizabeth Hospice – During their rotation here, fellows visit and provide end-of-life care to patients in their home and other settings, as needed, and learn the basic services provided by hospice care. They also learn how to transition patients smoothly to hospice at the appropriate point in the patient's disease trajectory; develop important communication skills; and create strategies to lessen physical, emotional and spiritual pain.