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WBM january 2011
Dr. Mary Rudyk, a geriatri-cian
with Wilmington’s
Senior Health Center
and a member of the
Physicians Group at The Davis
Community, has an interesting take
on her duties as a physician. “My job
is to keep you from going into the
hospital,” she says. “I want to keep
you as healthy as possible for as long
as possible and allow you to live a nor-mal,
productive, dignified life.”
Dr. Rudyk and her fellow physi-cians
and staff at Senior Health Care
work closely with patients and special-ists
to determine the best course of
action, then act as a kind of central
command around which their entire
course of care revolves.
“It’s vital for patients like mine,
who often see several specialists, to
have someone with medical knowledge
to be in charge of their overall care,”
she says. “I know my patients’ histo-ries,
tendencies and issues and act as a
gatekeeper through whom the special-ists
pass.”
This new role, reflective of the
paradigm shift in gerontology, allows
for more effective uses of patients’
resources, saving them from repeat-ing
tests that are expensive as well as
physically and mentally exhausting.
She believes, as do many in the medi-cal
community, that the Electronic
Medical Records acts proposed
by President Bush and funded by
President Obama will lead to a stream-lining
of care as records are more read-ily
available to treating and consulting
physicians. Dr. Rudyk says those days
are “far in the future” and doubts any
changes will impact her patients in
the short-term. “But,” she says, “that’s
what I’m here for.”
Even with these changes in geriat-ric
care, Dr. Rudyk says the biggest
change we can make is the simplest
one: Treat everyone with dignity.
“We can reduce all of the big
fears of seniors — falls, dementia,