The Penn State Health Approach to Geriatrics

Penn State Health offers comprehensive, personalized care for older adults, especially those 70 and older. Our geriatric doctors and nurse practitioners can serve as primary care providers or as consultants, depending on your needs and preferences. We look at the big picture to consider how factors like your medical conditions, memory concerns, mental health, medications and home support could affect your safety and overall quality of life. We take the time to get to know you and help you manage your changing health needs as you age.

By working closely with other members of your care team, including geriatric nurses, pharmacists, physical therapists and social workers, we offer a holistic approach to patient care that addresses your medical, functional, cognitive and psychosocial needs.

Conditions we treat

• Alzheimer’s disease
• Anxiety, depression and insomnia
• Arthritis
• Dementia with behavioral manifestions
• Diabetes
• Excessive or unnecessary medication
• Falls and mobility
• Heart disease
• High blood pressure
• High cholesterol
• Incontinence
• Memory loss
• Neurodegenerative diseases, including Parkinson’s disease
• Osteoporosis
• Stroke

Inpatient geriatric medicine service focuses on acute issues

In collaboration with the medical and surgical teams at Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, our team provides comprehensive, compassionate care to frail older adults hospitalized with multiple medical problems.

Services include:

• Treating common problems, such as delirium, dementia and depression
• Evaluating polypharmacy, the use of multiple drugs at the same time
• Assessing and evaluating for  falls, frailty and difficulty eating
• Performing cognitive screenings and capacity assessments
• Discussing with patient and family what matters most in the health care journey
• Assisting the primary hospital team with determining safe and feasible discharge plans
• Recommending referrals and resources for outpatient geriatric clinical programs or hospice care, if needed

Community-based care following discharge

Following discharge from the hospital, many older adults will transition to a nursing home or other post-acute care facility for rehabilitation prior to going home. Penn State Health’s Geriatric Medicine team helps to ensure consistency of care for those patients by providing geriatric medicine services to residents at multiple locations in Dauphin, Lancaster and Lebanon counties. Patients who transfer to these facilities will continue under the care of a Penn State Health physician who, in some cases, may serve as the community’s medical director.

• Capitol Rehabilitation & Healthcare Center
• Landis Homes
• Lebanon Skilled Nursing and Rehabilitation Center
• Londonderry Village
• Masonic Village at Elizabethtown
• Middletown Home
• Oak Hill Village
• Spang Crest
• St. Anne’s Retirement Community
• Willow Valley Communities

Outpatient memory program provides specialized care

Dementia is a chronic disease that leads to the loss of independence, making an early diagnosis extremely important. With the help of our expert clinicians at the Geriatrics Memory Program at Penn State Health Cocoa Outpatient Center, you can access the right support to live as well as possible and gain an understanding of the changes in memory, thinking and social abilities that you are experiencing.

Our specialized clinicians:

• Diagnose and stage dementia
• Address reversible, contributing factors
• Educate and develop skills of care partners
• Optimize independence and function
• Minimize threats to safety
• Reduce the intensity of challenging symptoms and other stressors
• Support and improve care-partner resilience
• Assist with planning for the future and anticipating predictable outcomes

Geriatrics Home Visit Program

Homebound older adults who are medically complex often have difficulty accessing outpatient medical care. With a referral from your provider, a nurse practitioner with our Geriatrics Home Visit Program will complete a comprehensive geriatric assessment in your home and enroll you in the primary care program. In addition to identifying any possible health problems or safety issues, you will receive clear guidance for your ongoing care.

Research

Penn State Health’s Department of Geriatric Medicine participates in numerous studies to help advance innovation in geriatric clinical care. One example is a multi-year grant in partnership with the Pennsylvania Department of Health on the Long-Term Care Resiliency, Infrastructure Supports, and Empowerment initiative that aims to help long-term care facilities weather and overcome the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Another is the recently awarded 2024-2025 GEAR 2.0: Geriatric Emergency care Applied Research – Advancing Dementia Care network pilot award. This award funds research focused on improving emergency-department-to-community-care transitions and reducing return visits in people living with dementia. Together with Milton S. Hershey Medical Center’s Emergency Department, our team will study the association between the stress levels and “caregiving things” that cause the most stress among care-partners of people living with dementia and return visits to the emergency department.