When SHM’s Geriatrics Special Interest Group (SIG) founders established the group in the summer of 2025, they wanted to form a collaborative community where hospitalists could share ideas, exchange best practices, and collectively lead innovations in age-friendly care delivery.
Dr. Onyema
“Hospitalists are at the forefront of caring for hospitalized older adults, navigating multi-morbidity, cognitive vulnerability, and functional decline while aligning care with patients’ goals and values,” said Ezenwa Onyema, MD, MS, FHM, who chairs the SIG.
Dr. Wang
Linda Wang, DO, the SIG’s vice chair, was inspired to help found the group with Dr. Onyema and others because no SIG that focused on managing hospitalized older adults existed.
Dr. Onyema, a clinical assistant professor in the department of emergency medicine in the division of hospital medicine and the department of internal medicine in the division of geriatrics and palliative medicine at the UTHealth McGovern Medical School, an academic hospital with 1,100 beds in Houston, sees firsthand the complexity and nuance required to care for older adults.
As a newer SIG, Dr. Onyema said, the group has a unique opportunity to shape its identity and to explore innovative directions for growth to support the hospitalist community.
At the same time, the group’s newness presents challenges. “We’re still building influence compared to more established SIGs and are actively working to strengthen member engagement,” Dr. Onyema said. Current membership primarily includes hospitalists and advanced practice practitioners; broadened interdisciplinary representation is needed.
The SIG aims to intentionally engage professionals across multiple care settings—such as nursing, pharmacy, social work, and rehabilitation—to create a more diverse, collaborative community that reflects the team-based nature of geriatric care.
The Geriatrics SIG is committed to advancing the care of older adults by promoting evidence-based practices through guideline dissemination, case-based discussions, and expert-led insights on managing complex geriatric syndromes such as delirium, polypharmacy, frailty, and cognitive impairment.
“Educational efforts are designed to be highly practical and clinically relevant, equipping hospitalists with actionable strategies that can be readily applied in diverse inpatient settings,” said Dr. Wang, who is a clinical assistant professor in the department of internal medicine’s division of geriatrics and palliative medicine at the University of Michigan Medical School’s University Hospital, an academic hospital with 1,043 beds in Ann Arbor, Mich.
In parallel, the SIG prioritizes professional development by creating meaningful opportunities for member engagement and leadership. This includes pathways for members to take on leadership roles within the SIG, contribute to educational programming, and collaborate on quality improvement and scholarly initiatives.
The SIG also fosters a strong sense of community through networking opportunities and mentorship, connecting early-career hospitalists with experienced clinicians and leaders in geriatrics and hospital medicine to support career growth and skill development.
Additionally, the SIG serves as a platform for advocacy, particularly in supporting initiatives such as the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid’s age-friendly hospital measure and broader age-friendly health system efforts.
“By engaging hospitalists in these initiatives, the SIG aims to elevate the role of frontline providers in shaping policy, driving system-level change, and ensuring that care delivery models are aligned with the aging population’s unique needs,” Dr. Wang said.
Although it’s still in its infancy, the Geriatrics SIG has already had some successes. It has delivered high-yield educational programming on key topics aligned with age-friendly care, including delirium management.
Hospitalists from different institutions with Institute for Healthcare Improvement age-friendly recognitions have shared practical, real-world workflows with webinar participants.
Sessions emphasized actionable strategies that can be readily implemented across hospital settings, reinforcing the SIG’s commitment to equipping hospitalists with the necessary tools to advance age-friendly care.
The SIG’s leaders have also met with junior faculty geriatricians to discuss career advancement and strategies for promoting geriatric education among hospitalists. In addition, the SIG has created opportunities for members to serve as first-time speakers at SHM Converge.
Looking ahead, one of the SIG’s goals is to assist health systems with getting age-friendly health care designations, especially given CMS’s new age-friendly mandates. Another goal is to equip hospitalists to lead interdisciplinary teams that drive operational changes in caring for older adults.
Further, the SIG is collaborating with complementary SIGs such as the Perioperative SIG, the Trauma Informed Care SIG, and the Compassionate Healthcare Collaborative SIG to advance shared priorities.
“Through this collaboration, the SIG can amplify the positive impact on caring for older adults across different clinical settings, from perioperative optimization and trauma-informed approaches to compassionate, patient-centered care delivery,” Dr. Onyema said.
“By working alongside these groups, we can co-develop educational programming, share best practices, and promote scalable workflows that address older adults’ complex medical, functional, and psychosocial needs,” Dr. Wang said.
Ultimately, these partnerships strengthen the ability to embed age-friendly principles—such as the Institute for Healthcare Improvement’s 4Ms framework (what matters, medication, mentation, and mobility)—across varied clinical settings, ensuring more coordinated, high-quality, and equitable care for the aging population, Dr. Onyema said.
The group actively participates in SHM’s HMX online community to facilitate discussions and disseminate relevant information and engages members through quarterly webinars. A regular quarterly meeting cadence to sustain collaboration and advance shared initiatives is in the works.
Karen Appold is an award-winning journalist based in Lehigh Valley, Pa.