“I know geriatrics, because I’ve taken care of a lot of old people.” As a geriatrician, I’ve heard this refrain my whole career from other physicians who are trying to rationalize the care they deliver to older adults. The scope of this refrain is about to expand, and we shouldn’t be surprised to find nursing home administrators opining on clinical care delivery approaches.
In 2001 I co-founded Senior Care of Colorado. We were a small group of six geriatricians and a couple of physician assistants working out of two clinics who provided primary care geriatrics in local nursing homes. We immediately had offers from several local nursing homes to take positions as medical directors. Naively, we thought that these offers reflected a desire for these facilities to gain expertise in geriatrics. Realistically, they probably thought that hiring us would bring them more patients. Within a year we were under investigation from the OIG. They interviewed several nursing home administrators.
