Exceptional and comprehensive care

A geriatrician is a physician who specializes in meeting the medical and psychosocial needs of older adults. Our goal is to improve their health, functioning and well-being, and when this is not possible, to provide comfort and care that is aligned with the patients’ and families’ goals.

Our physicians are board-certified with specialized training in geriatric medicine. When it comes to Geriatric Medicine, our team understands and specializes in meeting the unique health needs of older patients, and includes geriatric nurse practitioners, a social worker, a patient care coordinator, and a medical office assistant.

Our team identifies primary medical care problems and coordinates a plan of care with other medical specialists, therapists, and home care agencies. We provide comprehensive care to medically complex patients in the office, in the hospital, and, when needed, in our patients’ homes – when you’re a patient of Maimonides Geriatric Medicine, you’ll receive care where you need it.

Conditions addressed by our Geriatric Medicine team:

  • Complex medical illnesses
  • Depression
  • Falls and gait disorders
  • Incontinence in men and women
  • Loss of function
  • Malnutrition
  • Medication management
  • Memory difficulties and dementia
  • Osteoporosis
  • Pain and palliative care
  • Wound and pressure ulcers

Aligning care for seniors’ unique needs

At Maimonides Geriatric Medicine, we strive to provide highly coordinated care across the continuum of needs:

  • We address your medical illnesses and assure your care is coordinated with other specialists, home care providers, emergency, hospital staff, and social services.
  • We review all your medications for interactions, appropriate dosages, and side effects.
  • We develop a comprehensive care plan to meet each persons’ individual goals and to maximize mental and physical function.
  • We have expertise in managing memory loss, depression, falls and mobility problems, pressure ulcers, frailty, sleep disorders, loneliness, osteoporosis, incontinence, and arthritis.
  • We monitor your health and keep you healthy with appropriate screenings, tests, and immunizations.
  • We guide you through end-of-life challenges, including establishing advance directives.

Please contact our Geriatric Medicine outpatient practice for more information about primary care and consultation services.

To make an appointment with a Geriatric Medicine specialist, call (718) 283-7071.

Geriatric Outpatient Practice

4719 Fort Hamilton Parkway – 1st Floor
Brooklyn, NY 11219
(718) 283-7071

Telehealth visits are also available via Maimonides Virtual Care.

Learn more about:

Acute Care for the Elderly (ACE): Hospital inpatient geriatric care at Maimonides Medical Center

As a patient of Maimonides Geriatric Medicine, you may be under the care of our team if you’re hospitalized. The Acute Care for the Elderly (ACE) Unit at Maimonides Medical Center is a designated floor in the hospital, staffed with a board-certified geriatrician at the helm. In addition to providing routine medical care, the team on this floor focuses on the specific needs of the elderly hospitalized patient. While in the hospital, older patients often experience decline in function and mental confusion (delirium). Our ACE team works to minimize complications like these that are common to an older patient’s hospitalization.

The ACE Unit serves as a bridge between hospital and community healthcare providers. Discharged patients are given a comprehensive discharge plan. As discharge from the hospital can be overwhelming and challenging, our team may recommend a Safe at Home visit by our team’s nurse practitioner to review all the medications, assure that the patient is continuing to get well and that all needed services are in place.

Read an ACE program case study and learn about its efficacy here.

Safe at Home

The Maimonides Safe at Home program provides transitional care services to geriatric patients who are moving home from a hospital stay or emergency room visit. A geriatric nurse practitioner (GNP) will visit a patient at home shortly after a hospital or emergency room discharge to assess the patient’s medical condition and follow up with a primary care provider. A nurse practitioner will contact the patient/caregiver and explain this program before the visit is planned.

To be eligible for a Safe at Home visit, patients must fulfil one of the following:

  • Moderate to severe functional deficits
  • Multiple chronic conditions
  • Polypharmacy
  • Multiple hospitalizations or ED visits
  • Inadequate support systems
  • Dementia or delirium

Call (718) 283-7071 to learn more about Safe at Home visits.

Maimonides Home Medical Care for the Elderly

The Maimonides Home Medical Care for the Elderly Program is a home-based primary care service that delivers holistic, personalized, coordinated, high-quality medical services to homebound elderly individuals in the comfort of their homes. Our nurse practitioners make house calls to patients at regular intervals, and as needed, to provide a variety of health services. The treatment plans focus on maximizing independence and function at home.

Who is eligible?

  • Patients aged 65 and older
  • Homebound patients (limited ability to leave home due to illness or injury – the individual needs supportive devices, the use of special transportation, or the assistance of another person to leave their place of residence)
  • Patients with chronic medical conditions

We serve multiple areas including, Manhattan Beach, Brighton Beach, Bensonhurst, Bay Ridge, Sheepshead Bay, Mill Basin, Borough Park, Sunset Park, Midwood, Park Slope, Marine Park, Gravesend, Bath Beach, Dyker Heights, Fort Hamilton Kensington, and Windsor Terrace.

Telehealth visits for home medical care are also available via Maimonides Virtual Care.

Our team provides knowledgeable, personalized care at home, including:

  • 24-hour answering service
  • Active involvement with patients, their families, and home care nurses
  • Diagnostic and laboratory tests at home
  • Assessment of the home environment
  • Assistance with psychosocial and healthcare needs, including prescriptions, home care, supplies, and forms
  • Coordination of care and referrals to nursing, social work services, and medical specialists as needed
  • End of life counseling and hospice referrals
  • Guidance and information regarding advance directives and appointment of a healthcare proxy
  • Health education, nutritional counseling, and vaccinations
  • Multilingual staff

What happens if I need to be hospitalized?

Our patients are admitted to Maimonides Medical Center under the care of a physician from the Division of Geriatrics. Most admissions will be to the ACE Unit. We will facilitate and coordinate all hospital admissions and discharge plans.

Our Home Medical Care Team

Debra Barnett, GNP

Aleksandra Zagorin, DNP, MA, AGPCNP-BC, RN

 

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