In January 2007 the Division of Geriatric and General Internal Medicine established a Hospital Medicine section, thereby creating a newly named Division of Geriatric, Hospital and General Internal Medicine (GHGIM). GHGIM will be made of three sections, Geriatrics, Hospital Medicine and General Internal Medicine. While the Hospital Medicine program operates largely at the Los Angeles County+University of Southern California Medical Center (LAC+USC), the program also extends to the Norris and USC University Hospitals as well.

The role of the Hospital Medicine section will include intense supervision of care with goals of (1) reduction in the length of stay, (2) implementation of a short stay unit at the Medical Center, (3) 24/7 in house presence, and for compliance with a variety of other performance measures.

The newly comprised Division is comprised of a skillful team of clinician educators as well as a cadre of nationally recognized scientists. The Division has already experienced considerable growth and realized the synergy of the union. The areas of private practice, training and research continue to be focal points of the Division’s faculty. The Division holds true to its Mission, i.e., Excellence in Primary and Specialty Care: Comprehensive, Scholarly, Compassionate.

The Division is comprised of an outstanding group of 29 compassionate and dedicated physician educators. Created in late 1988 with only a handful of faculty having eclectic interests and commitments, the Division has grown to its present size and stature and honed its focus on the broad academic mission of the Keck School of Medicine.

They have dedicated their careers to providing state-of-the-art care to their own patients while developing the hundreds of doctors-in-training each year at the Keck School of Medicine into sophisticated, humane and compassionate physicians, the majority of future practicing physicians in Southern California.

They devote their attention to our community’s health needs, at LAC+USC Medical Center as well as the private practice arena at the USC Health Sciences Campus and multiple satellite sites.

In the research arena our faculty members continue to explore modes of prevention and detection of elder abuse, reduction of medication problems, such as polypharmacy and errors in the long-term environment, and the economic consequences of our ever increasing national healthcare budget.

Our training programs benefit from our outstanding group of clinician educators. The faculty members of GHGIM account for 42% of the inpatient general medicine teaching and supervision in LAC+USC Medical Center. In the ambulatory environment our faculty supervise approximately one third of the clinics at the LAC+USC Healthcare Network.

Our Geriatric Fellowship Program has expanded to include a Geriatric Assessment Clinic, Adult Protective Team consultations as well as new affiliations with the Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center and Hollenbeck Home. The latter is the oldest life care facility in California located only one mile form the Health Sciences Campus. It is anticipated that these new affiliations will develop into outstanding venues for training fellows.

In the clinical area, especially in the private practice, the Division has built several strong programs that benefit our patients. The Division offers clinical programs that include Adult Medicine (Men's, Women's and Senior Health), Travel Medicine, Pediatrics, Home Visit, Allergy and Asthma and Same Day Services.