Geriatrics

The Brooklyn Hospital Center is committed to providing the highest level of medical care to the elderly population. We offer primary care and consultation for treatment and diagnosis of conditions that become more common as people age such as memory impairment, frailty, incontinence, frequent falls and functional diabetes. We also provide transitional care, as well as house calls for homebound patients with limited mobility and chronic conditions. Support is also available for care givers of elderly patients.

Conditions Treated

• Alzheimer’s disease
• Complex, chronic disease
• Dementia, depression, memory loss
• Dizziness and balance problems
• Frequent falls and gait disorders
• Foot ulcers and other slow-healing wounds
• Joint pain
• Loss of function
• Medication management
• Osteoporosis, osteoarthritis and other bone conditions
• Urinary and fecal incontinence in men and women
• Vision and hearing impairment

Other Services

• Coordination of care
• House calls for patients who are home-bound or have restricted mobility
• Long-term planning decisions
• Finding appropriate elder care
• Managing chronic pain
• Minimizing use of pharmaceuticals
• Preventive care

The Geriatric Inpatient Unit in Brooklyn, NY

The Geriatric Unit includes 37 beds dedicated to the frail elderly, age 65 years and above. The goal of the unit is to deliver multidisciplinary care that incorporates the very best in medicine, nursing, rehabilitation, nutrition, social services and spiritual support. Recognizing the deep involvement of families in the care of their loved ones, our unit offers a family room and a pantry that is accessible to visitors at all times. The unit recognizes the special needs of the elderly and displays warm colors, stimulating artwork, low-rise beds and wheelchair-accessible showers.

All of our staff undergo comprehensive geriatric based education and competency training and our staff education is continuously being updated to ensure the provision of state of the art care in areas including pressure ulcer prevention and management, fall prevention and the reduction of restraint use.

The geriatric admitting physician/designee will make the decision that the patient meets the criteria detailed below and will arrange with the Admitting Department that the patient be admitted to the Geriatric Unit depending on bed availability.Typically, patients admitted to the Geriatric Unit have one or more of the following conditions:

• Alzheimer’s disease
• Altered mental status and/or delirium
• History of falls or assessed to be at high risk for falls
• Failure to thrive and/or malnutrition and/or dehydration
• Pressure ulcers
• Aspiration pneumonia

All individuals requiring inpatient care age 65 years and over who are residents of a skilled nursing facility or who are community residents are eligible for admission to the geriatric unit EXCEPT those who require:

• Ventilator support
• Telemetry monitoring
• Intensive Care Unit level of care
• Immediate post operative surgical care