BSW Geriatric Clinic achieves age-friendly designation

Apr 22, 2023

Dr. Chitra Hamilton is the physician at the Baylor Scott & White Geriatric Clinic, located inside the Center for Diagnostic Medicine. The Geriatric Clinic as been designated as an age-friendly health-care facility by the Institute for Healthcare Improvement.

DAVID STONE | OUR TOWN TEMPLE

The number of senior Americans will double over the next 30 years and top 85 million by 2053, according to US Census Bureau reports, leaving health-care systems struggling to meet the needs of an aging population.

A small but busy single-physician clinic at Baylor Scott & White Medical Center in Temple, however, is meeting senior-related health concerns head on and has received a coveted Age-Friendly Designation by the Institute for Healthcare Improvement.

According to Dr. Chitra Hamilton, an internal medicine physician who specializes in geriatric medicine at BSW’s Geriatric Clinic, located inside the Center for Diagnostic Medicine, the age-friendly designation is an initiative of the John Hartford Foundation and the Institute for Healthcare Improvement.

The Temple clinic is the only BSW facility systemwide that has achieved the age-friendly designation.

“Becoming an Age-Friendly Health System entails reliably providing a set of four evidence-based elements of high-quality care known as the 4M’s,” Hamilton said. “The M’s include What Matters, Medication, Mentation and Mobility.”

“These are issues that are important to older Americans,” Hamilton said. “We deal with issues that are specific to quality of life. We make sure people know why they are taking medicines and make sure they are handling the side effects and not taking too many meds.”

“One of the clinic’s primary goals is to keep our clients independent for as long as possible,” she said. “All of us — if we are blessed — at some point are going to face issues related to aging. It’s kind of a second life after retirement and it’s a time to enjoy grandchildren and do things we love.”

“At some point many folks start to experience memory disorders, and we try to recognize that sooner than later,” she said.

Hamilton explained that a geriatrician follows an internal medicine or family medicine path, but adds extra training that focuses on primary care for patients 65 and older.

“It’s like being a cardiologist or endocrinologist, but our extra training is specific to issues that have the most impact on older patients,” she said. “We focus on preventing falls, cutting back medicines, memory diseases and keeping people living independently for as long as possible.”