Froedtert & Medical College Lead in Geriatric Care

Froedtert & The Medical College of Wisconsin's Senior Health Program has opened a new clinic in the Community Memorial Medical Commons at North Hills in Menomonee Falls. The comprehensive program is a joint clinical venture between the Medical College's Departments of Medicine and Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine and Froedtert & Community Health.

The goal of the program is to provide geriatric patients, many of whom have complex health issues that are difficult to diagnose or treat, a single place where they can go to receive general medical care, specialty care and outpatient consultation.

Specialty Services
Specialty services being offered through the program include a new cognitive and behavioral program, called the Mind, Memory and Mood Clinic, that combines the expertise of geriatricians, geriatric psychiatrists, psychometrists, advance practice nurses and a social worker. They also include:

• Diagnostic evaluation of cognitive functioning
• Comprehensive mental health evaluation
• Functional assessment
• Expert medication management
• Access to clinical research
• Referrals for counseling
• Hospitalization
• Future planning

Expert Staff
Geriatricians from the Department of Medicine scheduled to see patients at the program clinic include Mary Cohan, MD, and Diana Kerwin, MD, both Assistant Professors of Medicine (Geriatrics and Gerontology).

Geriatric psychiatrists from the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine scheduled to see patients at the program clinic include Harold Harsch, MD, Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine; David Bresnahan, MD, Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine; and Joseph Goveas, MD, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine.

Paul Hankwitz, MD, CMD, FACP, Associate Professor of Medicine (Geriatrics), will lead the Senior Health Care Clinic on this site. Dr Hankwitz, a Medical College of Wisconsin alumnus, is an experienced geriatrician who recently joined the College's full-time faculty. Senior Health Care will provide general medical care and outpatient consultation.

This is the first time that Medical College geriatricians will offer ongoing ambulatory care. Existing senior health programs in long term care through partnerships with Clement Manor and Care Age of Brookfield as well as home care through Horizon Home Health and Hospice will continue.

Medical College Chosen for Care of Older Adults Project
In addition to the new site for the Senior Health Program, the Medical College of Wisconsin had the honor of being one of four US medical schools chosen to participate in the national Chief Resident Immersion Training (CRIT) in the Care of Older Adults demonstration project. The CRIT project trains chief residents to diagnose and treat health problems common to older adults and empowers them to better train the medical students and residents under their supervision.

The Association of Directors of Geriatric Academic Programs oversees the project and selected the winners, which also includes Yale University, Marshall University and the University of Cincinnati. Each participating institution receives a 30-month, $114,000 grant to conduct two intensive CRIT training retreats and follow-up training for their chief residents.

Karen Brasel, MD, MPH, Associate Professor of Surgery, and Kathryn M. Denson, MD, Assistant Professor of Medicine, will be leading the chief resident training effort at the College. As part of the effort, chief residents will be familiarized with health problems common to older adults, the assessment of older patients, preoperative and postoperative evaluation, and management and discharge planning. They will also learn the best ways to teach this knowledge to the residents and students they train.

"Drs. Brasel and Denson and their MCW colleagues are looking to influence important physician opinion leaders so that physicians in training can be sensitized to critical geriatrics issues in their respective disciplines," said Edmund H. Duthie Jr., MD, Professor of Medicine and Chief of Geriatrics and Gerontology at the Medical College.

MCW Health News presents up-to-date information on patient care and medical research by the physicians of the Medical College of Wisconsin.