Geriatric Medicine
The UVA Section of Geriatrics operates four well-established community-based practices in the Charlottesville area, with an impact in surrounding counties: University Physicians at JABA, Westminster Canterbury of the Blue Ridge, Colonnades Medical Associates, and Virginia at Home, which is a home-based primary care program.
Geriatric medicine focuses on achieving the highest possible level of physical and functional well-being for older adults, as well as on preventing disability and disease and promoting independence as aging occurs. Geriatric physicians and nurse practitioners excel at caring for all adults over the age of 65, but also, especially in care for older adults living with multiple medical concerns, as well as functional and cognitive impairments.
Geriatric Medicine Section Head: Justin Mutter, MD, MSc
Justin Mutter, MD
Dr. Justin Mutter joined the faculty in the Section of Geriatrics in 2017 and has served as Section Head for the last three years. He completed his medical education at the UVA School of Medicine, and his residency training in Family Medicine at the Mountain Area Health Education Center (MAHEC) in North Carolina. He then returned to UVA for his fellowship training in geriatric medicine. He holds a joint appointment in the Department of Family Medicine.
Dr. Mutter is a primary care and consultative geriatrician, with expertise in dementia and other memory disorders, polypharmacy and complex medication management, and frailty. He is the founder and medical director of Virginia at Home (VaH), UVA’s home-based primary care program for older adults with complex medical concerns who have significant difficulty leaving their homes to get to the clinic. Previously, Dr. Mutter was core faculty of the UVA Memory and Aging Care Clinic and UVA Physicians at JABA and was also medical director of Continuum Home Health Care.
In addition to his clinical work, Dr. Mutter is active in undergraduate and graduate medical education, serving as the Director of Health Humanities Programs for the UVA Center for Health Humanities and Ethics. Among other grants, he is also the current recipient of a Geriatric Academic Career Award from the Health Resources and Services Administration, focusing on interprofessional geriatric education in medicine, nursing, and pharmacy.
Geriatrician and patient
What is Geriatrics?
Geriatrics medicine focuses on achieving the highest possible level of physical and functional well-being for older adults, as well as on preventing disability and disease and promoting independence as aging occurs.
What is the Role of a Geriatrician?
A geriatrician is a primary care physician who has advanced training in the health issues of adults 65 and older.
Why Seek a Provider Trained in Geriatrics?
To maximize health and productivity, and for expert care on issues affecting older adults, including:
- Changes in physical abilities or mental status, such as memory
- Susceptibility to falls or falling, and strategies to prevent them
- Effective management of multiple medical problems and/or multiple medications
- Relieving the burden on family members who a
- re caregivers
Services Offered By UVA Geriatricians:
- Geriatric assessment
- Neurocognitive assessment
- Pain management and rehabilitative evaluation and treatment
- Comprehensive primary health care
University Physicians at JABA is an outpatient practice that works in partnership with JABA (Jefferson Area Board for Aging), a Charlottesville-based agency providing services to the region’s large population of retirees and elderly.
Under the leadership of medical director Karen Starr, MD, Assistant Professor of Medicine, the practice has grown rapidly in the last several years; clinicians are available five days per week and offer primary geriatric care, geriatric consultation, and a frailty-focused clinic.
Person-Centered Care for Homebound Older Adults
Virginia at Home (VaH) is UVA’s first home-based primary care program for older adults. The program is designed to bring primary care services into patients’ homes, using house calls from an interprofessional team inclusive of a nurse practitioner, physician, nurse coordinator, and clinical pharmacist. VaH’s goal is to serve older patients and their caregivers in Charlottesville and its surrounding counties, providing high-quality care in the home for those who have significant difficulty getting out for clinic visits.
The program is a partnership between UVA’s Section of Geriatrics, the Department of Population Health, Memory and Aging Care Clinic, and the Center for Health Humanities and Ethics. Those eligible for Virginia at Home must be “homebound” by Medicare criteria, which states that homebound patients are incapable of leaving their homes without significant assistance from another person.
Thomas Bradley Murray, MD, Assistant Professor of Medicine, serves as medical director and primary geriatrician at Westminster Canterbury of the Blue Ridge, a retirement community of about 400 residents aged 65 years and older.
WCBR provides a range of living and care options, including independent living, assisted living, advanced dementia care, skilled nursing, and long-term nursing home care. With two nurse practitioners, the practice at WCBR now operates full-time, five days per week, and has expanded over the last several years by about 40 percent.
Bethany Delk, PharmD, BCPS is an ambulatory care clinical pharmacist in geriatrics with practice sites at University Physicians at JABA, Memory and Aging Care Clinic, and Virginia at Home. Her primary professional interests include polypharmacy, transitions of care, and caring for complex older adults with multimorbidity.
In addition to her clinical work at UVA, Bethany and her husband have volunteered for medical missions in Guatemala for 15 years and provide leadership for a large team of volunteers each year.
Bethany earned her PharmD from the University of Georgia College of Pharmacy in 2005 and completed PGY1 Pharmacy and PGY2 Critical Care Pharmacy residencies at UVA from 2005-2007. She practiced in the emergency department and acute care internal medicine prior to joining the ambulatory care pharmacy team in 2013.
Pamela Tetro, FNP-C, CDCES, MSN is a Family Nurse Practitioner (NP) with over 30 years of experience in health care who holds autonomous practice licensure from the state of Virginia. She works with the UVA Geriatric Section providing care to elders residing at skilled nursing, long-term care, and assisted living facilities. Our aim is to alleviate illness, promote optimal wellness and provide end-of-life comfort care to elders. Pamela also serves as an Instructor of Medicine within the Division of General, Geriatric, and Palliative & Hospital Medicine, teaching medical students.
In addition to her board certification as a Family Nurse Practitioner, Pamela is a Certified Diabetes Care and Education Specialist. She attended the University of Southern Maine for her bachelor’s degree in nursing, graduating Magna Cum Laude, and earned her master’s degree in adult health nursing with family nurse practitioner certification at UVA. While at UVA she received the Barbara Brodie Nurse Practitioner Award, 1995. Pamela developed and presented a poster entitled “Hypoglycemia Protocol Institution at SNF/LTC Facility” at the 2021 annual conference of AMDA- the Society of Post-acute and Long term care. She is a member of the Sigma Theta Tau Honor Society of Nursing, the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners, and the Virginia Council of Nurse Practitioners.
Pamela was born and raised in Windsor Locks, Connecticut. She earned her bachelor’s degree in Biology with a minor in German at Bates College, Lewiston, Maine. She subsequently attended the University of Southern Maine for her bachelor’s degree in nursing, graduating in 1987. Maine became her home base for 14 years, including 2.5 years exploring the U.S. as a travel nurse in the hospital setting. In 1992, Pamela moved to Charlottesville and in 1996 completed nurse practitioner studies at UVA Graduate School of Nursing. She enjoyed Charlottesville so much she never left. Outside of work, her interests include music, spending time in nature, reading, and indulging a very spoiled cat.