By Janet Lowenbach
THE ERICKSON TRIBUNE

Picture yourself in a room with 4,999 people over age 65, who are waiting to see a single doctor. Chances are the wait will be long and the care rushed.

That’s the case in much of the U.S., where the ratio of gerontologists (doctors caring for older people) to patients is 5,000 to 1. To put it another way, there are only 8,000 gerontologists for an over-65 population of 35 million. As the supply of needed gerontologists continues to shrink, the number of older people is expected to balloon from 40 million today to nearly 50 million in five years.

Training leaves the medical school
This month, Erickson Health and its long-time research partner, Johns Hopkins Medical School, launch a new training and demonstration program funded by a $100,000 grant from Erickson. The training will be conducted at Oak Crest, an Erickson -built and -managed community in Baltimore, Maryland.

“The standard training is essential, but by supplementing it with the experience of working in a retirement community, the Erickson/Hopkins program helps doctors learn to practice in today’s complex world,” says Matt Narrett, Erickson Health’s chief medical officer.

Erickson and Johns Hopkins developed the program last year after Congress cut (and later restored) the geriatric training funds provided by the federal government. “The funding cuts showed us that the training program was still at risk,” Narrett says.

Producing new geriatric doctors
“We believe the shortage of geriatricians will continue,” says Samuel Durso, M.D., director of education for The Johns Hopkins Geriatric Program. “Geriatricians earn less than all other physician specialties, their patients have more complex needs, and these physicians have difficulty covering the high costs of geriatric education.”

“Our program is unique,” Durso says. “In addition to clinical training (a fellowship provides this for one year), we offer a second two-year program that includes both clinical experience and leadership training.”