UCSF Health Workforce Research Center Publishes Study on the Value of Geriatrics

UCSF Health Workforce Research Center authors Timothy Bates, MPP, Aubri Kottek, MPH, and Joanne Spetz, PhD have published their report: Geriatrician Roles and the Value of Geriatrics in an Evolving Healthcare System. There are insufficient numbers of practicing geriatricians to meet current demand for their services, and the shortage is projected to worsen in the coming decades as the number of older Americans rapidly increases. Interviews with field experts suggest that healthcare systems and organizations are reorganizing the delivery of geriatric care in ways that acknowledge the persistent shortage of geriatrician specialist physicians and seek to utilize this scarce resource to both amplify geriatricians’ expertise and provide higher quality, lower cost care. One of the key facilitators of this care transformation is the concept of geriatrics as a meta-discipline. Rather than a niche specialty practiced only by a small number of highly trained experts, geriatrics must be embraced by healthcare organizations as a set of principles that can inform all care provided to older adults, by all types of providers.

As value-based care continues to incentivize the adoption of innovative geriatric care models, organizations will rely on geriatricians to lead efforts to implement them. The expectation that geriatricians will play a key role in leading systemic transformation of older adult care raises important questions about the content of geriatrics fellowship training and other professional development opportunities. Field experts indicated that that fellowship programs could help prepare future leaders by incorporating experiences that allow fellows to deepen their knowledge of concepts such as population health, implementation science, healthcare financing, and practice model innovation. Programs should also offer mid-career professional development opportunities that utilize the executive MBA model to deliver content on these topics to practicing geriatricians and geriatrics fellowship-like content to non-geriatrician physicians.

This article was originally published by the UCSF Health Workforce Research Center Newsletter.