Geriatrician

Location: Melbourne | Parkville

Job type: Part time

Organisation: Austin Health

**Salary**: $99 - $107

Occupation: Medical and Nursing

Reference: 2422

**_Are you a current Austin Health employee? _**

Austin Health is the major provider of tertiary health services, health professional education and research across three campuses in the north-east of Melbourne and state-wide. We have a highly engaged, diverse and collaborative workforce that is unified by our goal to help people live healthy and fulfilled lives.

**About the Department**

Continuing Care Inpatient Services consist of two Rehabilitation/Geriatric Evaluation and Management (GEM) wards (Wards 11 & 12), an Acute GEM unit (Ward 10), and a further inpatient unit (Ward 9) incorporating an 8 bed Cognitive Assessment and Management (CAM) Program and 16 GEM beds.

The Community Programs offered include an Aged Care Assessment Service (ACAS), Transition Care Program and the and integrated Health Independence Program (HIP, including Older Persons' Complex Care/OPCC), Hospital in the Home (HITH), and Residential InReach services (formerly Outreach/ROS), and Medical and Cognitive Research Unit (MCRU). There is a suite of complex care focused specialist clinics located at both HRH and Royal Talbot

**About the role**

The Consultant is responsible for working effectively and efficiently with the multidisciplinary team, and for ensuring the right patient receives the right care at the right time in the right environment, mindful of patient choice and efficient and clinically appropriate utilisation of health resources. As part of a multidisciplinary team, you have shared responsibility for quality patient negotiated outcomes
- Role Specific:_
- Provide leave cover across the division
- Responsible for the admission, management and safe discharge of patients.
- Work collaboratively with your fellow team members (senior medical staff, junior medical staff, allied health, nursing and other staff) to provide efficient, safe and quality care.
- Facilitate excellent communication and liaison with other staff, general practitioners and other community providers involved in patient care.
- Complete appropriate documentation in the patient's hospital record. Entries should legible, timely, regular and comprehensive so as to document important changes or decisions, and ALL entries must be dated, designated and signed physically or electronically depending on the model of medical record in use in that environment.
- Communicate clearly and simply with patients and their families and carers, around the basis of diagnosis, course of disorder and proposed treatment options in a way that ensures understanding and empowers involvement in decision making regarding their care.
- Participate in relevant Unit quality activities, programs and rosters as requested, including weekly mortality/morbidity audits.
- Attend and participate in mandatory training requirements coordinated by the assigned Unit or Hospital.
- Actively participate in case discussion and discharge planning, so that timely decisions are made, and the active caseload is well managed for optimal function of the team
- Contribute to positive engagement with our key stakeholders including local General Practitioners, residential aged care facilities and local primary healthcare providers and deepen their understanding of what the Austin service can offer, enabling efficient and effective communication and care
- Provide good communication of management plans with carers, primary care providers and RACF / Community provider staff, with the aim of managing future recurrent issues or pre-emptively planning for future changes, such as palliative care measures where ongoing deterioration is expected within a declining trajectory
- Participate in weekend and evening cover roster as required
- Work cohesively with the team and share the caseload evenly where possible
- Be proactive where possible, respond to staff concerns in a manner that is consistent with the Austin Health values, and foster a culture of great teamwork and collaborative spirit, supporting the engagement, training and wellbeing of the team and wider service

**Core Scope of Clinical Practice** - procedures, therapies and competencies that a Fellow from the respective specialist medical college would be competent in practicing.
- Acute medical care of the older patient. The approach of the geriatrician will reduce the incidence of post-acute syndrome and functional decline associated with hospitalisation
- Management of geriatric syndromes - disorders characterised by the combination of age-related changes, accumulated pathology, polypharmacy, and acute illness reducing the threshold for the occurrence of falls, delirium, and incontinence
- Pharmacology and polypharmacy issues in the management of older people
- Acute and long-term management of neurodegenerative disorders and stroke in the older person
- Coordination and management of the rehabi