Definitions
Welcome to the Definitions Section of Hampton Health, Ltd.™ Here you will find information for the medical initials after providers names as well as the significance of Board Certification.
What is a Geriatrician?
Geriatric Medicine is a subspecialty certification by the Board of Internal Medicine or Family Practice. Practitioners within this subspecialty have special knowledge of the aging process and special skills in the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of illness in elder patients.
These specialists care for geriatric patients in the patient's home, assisted or independent living communities, medical offices and hospitals, and are in a position to clinically instruct the next generation of medical students, PA students, and medical residents in geriatric and palliative medicine.
Geriatricians are trained to recognize the unusual presentations of illness and drug interactions, to utilize resources such as community social services, and to assist with special ethical issues in the care of elder patients
What Do All Of The Initials Mean?
Dr. John H. Fullerton, MD, MRO, CMD, CFP, FACP, AGSF, FAAHPM, FASAM:
MD - Medical Doctor
MRO - Medical Review Officer
CMD - Certified Medical Director
CFP - Certified Forensic Physician
FACP - Fellow, American College of Physicians
AGSF - Fellow, American Geriatric Society
FAAHPM - Fellow, American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine
FASAM - Fellow, American Society of Addiction Medicine
What is an MRO?
Defined by the Medical Review Officer Certification Counsel (MROCC) (by 49-CFR part 40-- section 1.2) as:
"A licensed physician responsible for receiving laboratory results generated by an agency's drug testing program who has knowledge of substance abuse disorders and has appropriate medical training to interpret and evaluate an individual's positive test result together with his or her medical history and all other relevant biomedical information."
What Is The Importance Of Board Certification?
Dr. Fullerton is Board Certified in Internal Medicine, Geriatrics, Hospice & Palliative Medicine, and Addiction Medicine (by ABAM), as well as board certified as a Medical Review Officer (MRO by the MROCC), Forensic Physician, Medical Director for LTC and Hospice, and Home Care Physician.
Board certification is a voluntary act and there is no mandate that doctors become board certified. However, board certification demonstrates a physician’s exceptional expertise in a particular specialty and/or subspecialty of medical practice and has become the gold standard when looking for credentials of physicians.
For the patient, board certification provides the assurance that doctors have not only been rigorously trained in their specialty, but have been tested with a national standardized examination and is actively improving his or her practice of medicine through continuing education.