Family - Care Of The Elderly

[Belle_MD]

Hi all,

 

Im debating the family (care of the elderly) vs internal route to Geriatrics.

 

I would love to hear from residents or physicians in these specialties and hear how they like their programs, as well as learn more about their practice (academic vs community work, lifestyle, hours/call, salary etc). 

 

 

Thanks so much!!

[drbenoitchen]

Hello Belle_MD,

 

I've started working 3 years ago after completing the Care of the Elderly program at McGill. The program was solid, and the workload during the year was very manageable.

 

I currently work in a McGill-affiliated urban hospital. I do Geriatrics clinics, memory clinics, inpatient geriatrics ward (we have around 55 beds), ER and inpatient consults, in a group of 8 physicians (half care of the elderly, half specialists). The lifestyle is good in general, but I do take a lot of evening/weekend calls, on average 1 week out of 3-4, as they are paid well. The income varies from year to year, but it is comparable to the Internist Geriatricians, just above 500K, with very little overhead (around 20K for license, medical association, incorporation fees, billing company, insurance). Not sure if this is higher or lower than in Ontario though.

 

Hope this helps.

 

DrBenoitChen

[brady23]

On ‎5‎/‎23‎/‎2017 at 8:59 PM, drbenoitchen said:

Hello Belle_MD,

 

I've started working 3 years ago after completing the Care of the Elderly program at McGill. The program was solid, and the workload during the year was very manageable.

 

I currently work in a McGill-affiliated urban hospital. I do Geriatrics clinics, memory clinics, inpatient geriatrics ward (we have around 55 beds), ER and inpatient consults, in a group of 8 physicians (half care of the elderly, half specialists). The lifestyle is good in general, but I do take a lot of evening/weekend calls, on average 1 week out of 3-4, as they are paid well. The income varies from year to year, but it is comparable to the Internist Geriatricians, just above 500K, with very little overhead (around 20K for license, medical association, incorporation fees, billing company, insurance). Not sure if this is higher or lower than in Ontario though.

 

Hope this helps.

 

DrBenoitChen

Hi Dr. Chen,

Do you know the difference between pursuing geriatrics through the FM route vs. IM route? For example, is it possible to do geriatric clinic work through both paths? What are the advantages of the IM route?

[freewheeler]

My rudimentary understanding is that the more complex cases go to IM geriatricians who have additional training, the less complex cases go to FM geriatricians. Both can work in academic centre hospitals, probably more FM geriatricians in hospitals outside of major centres. FM geriatricians also often are medical directors of long term care facilities and manage the people living there from what I am aware of.

Just what I have heard.

[brady23]

25 minutes ago, freewheeler said:

My rudimentary understanding is that the more complex cases go to IM geriatricians who have additional training, the less complex cases go to FM geriatricians. Both can work in academic centre hospitals, probably more FM geriatricians in hospitals outside of major centres. FM geriatricians also often are medical directors of long term care facilities and manage the people living there from what I am aware of.

Just what I have heard.

Thank you so much for your reply! I really am interested in geriatrics, and it's great to know that there are alternate ways of treating geriatric patients other than the IM route!