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Family Physician Geriatricians Do Mostly Geriatric Care: Is This a Problem for Our Specialty?

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Family Physician Geriatricians Do Mostly Geriatric Care: Is This a Problem for Our Specialty? J Am Board Fam Med: first published as 10.3122/jabfm.2015.03.150090 on 8 May 2015. Downloaded from COMMENTARY Family Physician Geriatricians Do Mostly Geriatric Care: Is This a Problem for Our Specialty? Kenneth Brummel-Smith, MD In this issue, Peterson et al1 report that the majority of Dr. Stephens and Ian McWhinney. I was (and of family physicians with Certificates of Added am) passionate about the family as a unit of care and Qualifications (CAQs) in Geriatrics self-report the psychosocial approach. practicing primarily geriatrics. Almost 40% of Later, in 1980, as a young residency faculty, my those surveyed reported spending Ͼ80% of their program director asked me to attend a Society of time devoted to geriatric patients. Another 20% Teachers of Family Medicine meeting on integrat- reported spending 60% to 80% of their time with ing geriatrics into family medicine education. I older patients. These figures raise many more ques- jumped at the chance because it meant a free trip to tions than are answered by the data. Are these Boston! Once there, however, I was bowled over by percentages different from the amount of time fam- the presentations of David Kinney, Richard Ham, ily physicians with other types of CAQs spend in and other family physicians. The prospect of being their practices? Are family physician geriatricians a able to help anyone to function better salved the different “breed” than those who practice across a wound that disease-based medical care inflicted on broader age spectrum? How is the “silver tsunami” me. Over the next 3 years I transformed myself into affecting decisions of physicians with geriatric a geriatrician, and by 1984 I too was practicing copyright. Ͼ CAQs regarding the allocation of time within their 80% geriatrics. practice? Could it be that many family physician When the American Board of Family Practice geriatricians are simply getting older and seeing was considering joining the American Board of their practice age with them? Perhaps most con- Internal Medicine in creating the first CAQ, a troversial is whether this degree of “specialization” number of us met with the American Board of is inherently harmful to the discipline of family Family Practice to advocate in favor of the pro- medicine. posal. There was considerable opposition; however, http://www.jabfm.org/ My analysis of these questions is strongly influ- we felt strongly that the care of older people should enced by my personal journey in family medicine not be seen as the province of one specialty. In and geriatrics. I am an “early adopter.” I saw family addition, we felt the fundamentals we learned in practice (the term used in those days) as the natural family practice training—continuity, the family as a counterpart to my 1960s-era nonconformity. I unit of care, community-based thinking, and the graduated high school in 1967, the same year Gayle psychosocial approach—would be important to this Stephens was starting one of the first family prac- new, growing area of medicine. on 25 September 2021 by guest. Protected tice residencies, and I read voraciously the writings Over time, new CAQs have been added. Family medicine now has 6: geriatric medicine, adolescent medicine, hospice and palliative medicine, pain medi- From the Department of Geriatrics, Florida State Uni- cine, sleep medicine, and sports medicine. But many versity College of Medicine, Tallahassee. family physicians with other CAQs do not spend Funding: none. Conflict of interest: none declared. the majority of time doing that “subspecialty.” We Corresponding author: Kenneth Brummel-Smith, MD, De- have little information about how much time family partment of Geriatrics, Florida State University College of Medicine, 1115 West Call St, Suite 4305, Tallahassee, FL physicians with other CAQs spend on that special 32306-4300 (E-mail: [email protected]). area of interest, and more research into this ques- tion is needed. We do know that only about 6.7% of family physicians spend Ͼ80% of their time See Related Article on Page 314. doing emergency or urgent care, but there is no doi: 10.3122/jabfm.2015.03.150090 Commentary 311 J Am Board Fam Med: first published as 10.3122/jabfm.2015.03.150090 on 8 May 2015. Downloaded from CAQ for that area.2 I was unable to find studies geriatrics. In 2014 there were 509 Accreditation similar to that of Peterson et al1 regarding CAQs, Council for Graduate Medical Education–accred- but it seems unlikely that many family physicians ited slots for geriatric fellowships. Graduates of with CAQs spend the majority of their time in any family medicine residencies are eligible for either of these, except possibly hospice and palliative internal medicine– or family medicine–based fel- medicine. lowships. A total of 455 of those slots were available Perhaps a major reason that so many family because of lack of funding or faculty, and only 239 physician geriatricians spend so much of their time of those 455 slots (53%) were filled.7 doing geriatrics is because of the demand. Older As of 2012 there were 44 accredited family med- adults account for 26% of all physician office visits, icine geriatric fellowship programs. That year, 66 34% of all prescriptions, 35% of all hospital stays, of 109 positions were filled, most with graduates of and 90% of all nursing home residents.3 The deficit family medicine programs. With almost 500 ac- of geriatricians in the United States is well docu- credited family medicine residencies, staffing with mented. There are currently about 7,500 certified family medicine geriatricians is a challenge. In ad- geriatricians in the United States. The American dition, the geriatric workforce is itself aging and Geriatric Society calculates need assuming that moving toward retirement. Just as the wave is hit- 30% of elders will need care by a geriatrician, and ting, the bulwarks are disappearing. with a panel size of 700 older adults, then 17,000 Another likely reason for so many family physi- geriatricians are needed now. That number is ex- cian geriatricians “specializing” in geriatrics is be- pected to rise to 30,000 in 2030, when the silver cause practice scope is being restricted in many tsunami is expected to peak.4 Certain areas of the other areas of family medicine. The number of county have severe shortages of geriatricians, and family physicians providing pediatric, maternity, rural areas are the most affected.5 Importantly, and surgical care continues to decline. The propor- good evidence shows that family physician geriatri- tion of family physicians providing maternity care cians are more likely to practice in rural areas. In declined from 23.3% in 2000 to 9.7% in 2010. copyright. addition, in many cities as many as 12% of primary Those continuing to provide that service spent only care physicians (family physicians and general in- 10% of their time doing so.8 Even the provision of ternists) are not accepting new Medicare patients.6 care for women’s general health needs has de- Anecdotally, many physicians with a CAQ appar- creased from 73% of family physicians providing ently do not want this to be known so as not to the service in 2003% to 51% in 2009.9 attract a larger number of Medicare patients. The Bazemore et al10 showed that 83% of family simple fact is that finding a doctor who is not just physicians provided internal medicine–related care, http://www.jabfm.org/ willing but enjoys caring for older people is likely 73% provided pediatric care, and 65% provided driving family physician geriatricians to focus on geriatric care. However, the percentage of time geriatrics. spent with each group is not clear based on that The shortage of family physician geriatricians study. That older patients see doctors 2 to 5 times also affects training programs. Geriatrics is a re- as frequently as younger patients is well known. quired part of family medicine residency training, Many family physician geriatricians likely see their yet there were only 1099 geriatrician faculty in the pediatric patients simply age into being “internal on 25 September 2021 by guest. Protected entire United States in 2010. In addition, many medicine” patients, and these then age into being faculty have heavy clinical loads, limiting their time geriatric patients. for teaching. A interesting dynamic occurs in some Last, some family practice–based fellowship residencies: other faculty “punt” to the geriatrician programs have developed to address the needs of their difficult cases “for teaching purposes,” thereby in- rural elders. The program at Michigan State Uni- creasing the amount of time the geriatric faculty versity has developed a distributed program with 9 spend in geriatric care. family medicine residencies that enable rural phy- The existence of so few faculty also affects res- sicians to get fellowship training at those sites.11 idents’ decisions to pursue fellowship. Having an No other program in internal medicine is doing inspiring mentor strongly affects a resident’s train- that. This type of program is critical because rural ing choices and is one of the reasons so few family physicians are at great risk of limiting the access of medicine residents pursue fellowship training in older people to their practice.12 312 JABFM May–June 2015 Vol. 28 No. 3 http://www.jabfm.org J Am Board Fam Med: first published as 10.3122/jabfm.2015.03.150090 on 8 May 2015. Downloaded from The most difficult question to answer is whether demand_for_geriatric_care.pdf. Accessed February 27, “subspecialization” in geriatrics is harmful to the 2015. specialty of family medicine. I submit that it is not 5. Geriatrics Workforce Policy Studies Center. 2008 Geriatrics physician workforce by county. New harmful. The bottom line is that more geriatricians York: American Geriatrics Society; 2008.
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