Geriatric Medicine

FAU Medicine offers geriatric medicine consultations in collaboration with primary care physicians. The consultations are an addition to, not a substitute for ongoing primary care. Our geriatric medicine consultants do not serve as primary care physicians.

Geriatricians are experts at managing the care of older adults with multiple medical problems, impairments in functional ability and cognitive function (including various forms of dementia) and complex medication regiments. Geriatricians also focus on providing person-centered care to older adults, their families, and caregivers by helping make decisions on goals of care in relation to complex medical problems.

Geriatric Medicine consultation will focus on reviewing goals of care and helping patients and their families and other caregivers with conditions and situations that are especially common in older adults including:

• Decline in function associated with multiple medical conditions
• Memory loss and dementia
• Falls or fear of falling and gait abnormalities
• Use of multiple medications (polypharmacy)
• Bladder problems such as overactive bladder and urinary incontinence
• Other conditions that result in a decline in quality of life such as:
  • Chronic pain
  • Depressed mood and/or anxiety
  • Sleep difficulty
  • Other symptoms
• Possible need for additional in-home assistance or long term care
• Decision making capacity and executing advance care directives such as Living Wills and Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care to ensure preferences for care are documented.