The forgotten population: A growing need for geriatricians

As fewer physicians choose to specialize in geriatric medicine, experts at VCU strive to meet the health needs of an increasing population of older adults.  

Read about our approach to geriatric medicine

Geriatric Medicine

The three-campus Division of Geriatric Medicine offers a multi-faceted program led by twelve physicians and 20 nurse practitioners who work together with an extensive inter-professional staff of clinicians and administrators to create a comprehensive program of education, research, administration and clinical care. We are growing rapidly, having added five faculty members and three new programs in the past three years. The inter-professional nature of our program is reflected in close collaboration and leadership initiatives with five well-known VCU schools including Medicine, Nursing, Social Work, Pharmacy, and Allied Health (Physical and Occupational Therapy as well as Health Administration). We have a truly team-based approach to education, research and clinical care.

The first campus at The VCU Medical Center has three clinical sections: ambulatory care, inpatient consults, and palliative care.

The second campus at the VCU Center for Advanced Health Management has three clinical sections: ambulatory care, home-based primary care (HBPC), and the nursing facility attending service.

At our third campus at the Hunter Holmes McGuire Veterans Affairs Medical Center, geriatricians work and teach in the Geriatric Health Care Center which is an outpatient clinic, the on-site nursing home-care unit, the inpatient palliative care unit, and the home-based primary care program. The VA medical center serves as the home base for the geriatric fellowship, which involves all three campuses so that the fellows have a broad base of experience when they graduate, and is effectively led by Dr. Sarah Hobgood and re-accredited for five years in 2017. Eight of our faculty members are graduates from our fellowship.

These three venues support educational programs for more than 500 learners each year, including all 400 M1 and M2 students, all 90 internal medicine residents, all of the five geriatric fellowship positions, all Orthopedic residents, and a variety of other learners including nurse practitioner, social work, and pharmacy students.

The Division is proud of several successful initiatives including: two Reynolds grants (2001 and 2010); a Geriatric Education Center (2010) which is a statewide collaboration directed by Ed Ansello in the Center on Aging and co-directed by Peter Boling. The VCU Home-based Primary Care Program was also approved July 31, 2012 for participation in the national Independence at Home demonstration program working in collaboration with Medstar Washington Hospital Center and the University of Pennsylvania as the Mid-Atlantic Independence at Home Consortium. Leaders of the Consortium were directly responsible for creating the demonstration through the legislative and regulatory process. In addition, the VCU program faculty and staff have led the growth and development of the Virginia Geriatrics Society conference for the last 20+ years, which enjoys broad participation from doctors, advanced practice providers, social workers, and pharmacists.

About the Chief

About the Chief

About the Chief

Peter A. Boling, MD is a Professor of Internal Medicine and is the Division Chief. Dr. Boling’s work has centered on geriatric education and on improving care of people with advanced chronic illness with a focus on home-based care. He attended Amherst College (BA in English with honors in 1976) and received his MD from the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry in 1981 with a student pathology fellowship in 1978-1979.

Learn more about Dr. Boling

VCU Medical Center

Center for Advanced Health Management

Advanced Care Practitioners

  • Morgan Childress, NP
  • Shirley Constantino, NP
  • Margaret Copland, NP
  • Atalie Doyle, NP
  • Robyn E, Feely, MSN, GNP-BC
  • Jessica Gallon, NP
  • Marie Gerardo, NP
  • Lyons Hardy, NP
  • Carman Henderson, NP
  • Beth Hungate, NP
  • Lisa Johnson, NP
  • Tamera Krukiel, NP
  • Sara Majewski FNP-C, RN
  • Amanda Meadows, NP
  • Kristen Meikeljohn, NP
  • Cassaundra Minter, FNP
  • Pamela Parsons, NP
  • Martha Purvis, NP
  • Mimi Flemmer, NP
  • Arlene Rollins, NP
  • Lana Sargent, NP
  • Meagan Sutton, NP
  • Leigh West, PA

Social Work & Geriatric Care Management

  • Ashley Mickle, LCSW
  • Charlene Smith, MSW
  • Megan Stucke, LCSW
  • April Wilson, LCSW
  • Annette Young, LCSW

The Division of Geriatrics provides these comprehensive services through the VCU Medical Campus (VCUMC) and the Center for Advanced Health Management (CAHM):

The Division has several faculty members that are engaged in research. Educational research is being done as a component of our large educational grant programs (Reynolds and VGEC), looking at the impact of several educational models, curricula, and venues on learner knowledge, skills, and attitudes related to aging, as well as function on inter-professional teams.

Below are descriptions of ongoing research in Geriatrics:

  • Divisional faculty members are looking at tiered population health management in a younger population with a subset that has advanced chronic illness in the Virginia Coordinated Care program. Working with Dr. Wally Smith, Dr. Boling co-wrote a $1.2 million, two-year grant funded by AHRQ for this evaluation which involves Dr. Arline Bohannon who is medical director for that program. Dr. Bohannon has a longstanding interest in health disparities and quality of care for minority populations.
  • The impact of the geriatric medicine consultation service is under evaluation by Dr. Sarah Hobgood who has worked with two AFAR student grantees on this initiative and has presented several abstracts, including promising initial data related to the geriatric trauma patient population.
  • VCU Transitional Care, with data gathered since 2000, has generated abstracts regarding cost savings and improved quality. These data along with data from the House Calls program that has operated for 25 years helped to anchor the Independence at Home (IAH) Act, and the subsequent approval of the mid-Atlantic Independence at Home consortium as one of the demonstration sites. Overall evaluation of the IAH demonstration is under CMS contract to an outside vendor.
  • Pam Parsons, MSN, PhD has internal funding to examine the impact of inter-professional service learning venues on clinical care outcomes and learner skills and behaviors, working with Pharmacy and Social Work. She has also developed pilot data on biopsychosocial causes of the symptom of fatigue in elders that live in low income housing, and has published on coordination of care and use of ambulance care for emergency services in this publication. She has recently completed work on a contract from HUD to look at unmet needs and service use by elders in low income housing which is an area of particular interest for her.
  • Dr. Michael Godschalk has study male health problems with a particular focus on urinary incontinence, as well as male sex hormone changes with age.
  • Dr. Angela Gentili is engaged in a VA study of personalized care for older adults with low back pain working with Deborah Weiner at the University of Pittsburgh.

Along with medical education, the Division is interested in health services research related to a number of topics in the realm of improved chronic illness care, as well as clinical research on specific conditions and therapies, and research on aging itself.

Division of Geriatric Medicine
West Hospital, 10th Floor
Box 980055
Richmond, VA 23298
Phone:  (804) 628-9942


Division Contacts

Medicine

Peter Boling, MD
Division Chief
Box: 980055
Richmond, Virginia 23298 
E-mail: peter.boling@vcuhealth.org

Administration

Wendy Walker
Division Administrator
Box 980055
Richmond, Virginia 23298-0102
Phone: (804) 628-9942
Fax: (804) 628-3095
Email: wendy.walker@vcuhealth.org

Jay Holdren
Director of Senior Services & Continuum Integration, VCU Health
Box 980218
Richmond, Virginia 23298
Phone: (804) 348-0159
Email:  jay.holdren@vcuhealth.org

Betty DeWeese
Practice Operations Manager, CAHM Home-Based Primary Care
Box 980218
Richmond, Virginia 23298
Phone: (804) 354-8108
Email:  betty.deweese@vcuhealth.org