DR . WHO
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“ The Department of Family and Geriatric Medicine has the only geriatric fellowship program in the state of Kentucky , so we always have a huge emphasis on geriatric medicine ,” he said . “ I had some great attendings and role models . One of them , Dr . Patrick Murphy , that I still stay in touch with told me I might want to try out longterm care work . Then another lifelong friend Dr . Muhammad Babar told me the same thing .”
So he did exactly that . Starting at just one facility in 2008 as an attending quickly grew into a much larger position . Within a short period of time , Dr . Saleem became the Medical Director / Co Medical Director at seven long-term care facilities in the area .
“ My focus is primarily on the patient and their health condition , dealing with their chronic medical problems and how the facility ’ s policies can affect those and make a better change for those patients ,” he said .
In addition to his administrative duties at the facilities , infection control obviously took over a major part of his day-to-day when COVID-19 began to hit long-term care facilities .
“ We always paid attention to infection control , especially during every flu season . But the issue we had when the pandemic started was that we had no idea how to full confront that ,” he said . “ We had to lead with what we knew .”
Since the beginning of COVID-19 , he has been a part of a task force with The Society for Post-Acute and Long Term Care Medicine that aims to help long-term care physicians determine what steps to take to protect their patients and staff during this time . In addition , he is also a part of the state task force under Secretary Eric Friedlander for the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services .
“ We are responsible for some policy making ,” he said . “ There has been a lot of education and a steep learning curve as we shut down facilities to visitors , and as we learned how to coordinate care for our patients . That was the most important thing — to prevent the outbreak , and once the outbreak happened , how to control it ,” he said , also noting that they have placed a strong emphasis on transparent communication with patients ’ family members .
In addition to his role as a Certified Medical Director and an in-office primary care physician , he is also Clinical Faculty at the University of Louisville and Community Faculty at the University of Kentucky , teaching both undergraduate pre-med students as well as resident physicians .
When he ’ s not working , you can likely find Dr . Saleem still using his time to help his community . Currently the Vice President of both Doctors for Healthy Communities and Muslim Americans for Compassion , Dr . Saleem uses his time to give back to those that need it the most .
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