Program Overview

Mission Statement

The mission of the Baptist Memorial Medical Education Geriatric Medicine Fellowship program is to train physicians committed to providing quality health care across the continuum of care for our older population while integrating our three-fold ministry of Christ - Healing, Preaching, and Teaching. Using the wealth of geriatric specific clinical sites available within our health systems, fellows will graduate with an appreciation of and knowledge to practice geriatrics in any community setting.

Program Aims

  1. Provide education that meets or exceeds ACGME and board requirements in Geriatric Medicine, while incorporating the Baptist mission tenets throughout the curriculum.

  2. Train, mentor, and ensure the competency of fellows in: Patient Care, Medical Knowledge, Interpersonal and Communication Skills, Professionalism, Practice-Based Learning and Improvement, and Systems-Based Practice

  3. Prepare fellows to anticipate and serve the unique healthcare needs of the elderly patient population and their families in the Mid-South region, with particular attention to the extensive underserved population.

  4. Develop physician leaders who are dedicated to promoting improvements in healthcare quality, patient safety, and high value care

  5. Foster a family-like culture of learning and patient-centered care environment that is contagious among the medical staff, clinical and administrative teams, and the greater community.

Clinical Sites

  1. Baptist Memorial Hospital Memphis is a tertiary care hospital with active Palliative Care inpatient consult service and affiliated home health and inpatient and outpatient hospice services. This hospital serves the program as the primary participating site. Fellows will function as junior faculty members while on the Family Medicine Inpatient rotation, which has a majority of patients older than 65. Baptist Memorial Hospital Memphis annually has over 7,000 medical adult admissions over the age of 65.

  2. Oak Street Health practices exclusively with the geriatric population and provides outpatient assessment and management of older adults. This site functions as the program’s continuity clinic site and utilizes community based resources for appropriate management of elderly patients, including interdisciplinary teams which consist of MD’s, RN’s, and Social Workers.

  3. Veterans Affairs Medical Center provides fellows with exposure to aging veterans with multiple chronic and life-limiting illness including frailty or disability-associated chronic disease due to aging or injury. The educational experiences offered at the VA include geriatric specific inpatient, outpatient, home, psychiatric, and rehabilitation care. Annually, this VA has nearly 2,800 admissions over the age of 65.

  4. Baptist Rehabilitation Hospital-This site provides clinical experience in acute rehabilitation, inpatient management of rehabilitation patients, and outpatient rehabilitation strategies and teams.
  5. Women's Health Specialist- Fellows will gain experience in incontinence and gynecologic care in an academic women's clinic.