Health system
fails seniors half the time Care for elderly ailments ignored
By Kathleen Fackelmann,
USA
Today
November 4,
2003
Older Americans with health problems get the recommended
medical care they need only half the time, and the problem is worse when
looking only at the treatment they get for age-related illnesses, a study
out today says.
Seniors who don't get the right health care for
disorders like Alzheimer's run the risk of losing their independence. They
also may become disabled or even die prematurely, says lead author Neil
Wenger of the RAND Health.
''The quality of care provided to the oldest Americans
is not up to par,'' Wenger says.
A previous study by the same group said that doctors
provided the appropriate health care to adults of all ages only half of
the time.
The latest study, published in the Annals
of Internal Medicine, suggests seniors are no different: The report
found that seniors got the recommended care for general medical conditions
like heart disease just 52% of the time.
But the drop-off in medical care worsened when the team
homed in on age-related diseases such as dementia or malnutrition. The
study found seniors got the appropriate care for these conditions just 31%
of the time.
The
RAND
team looked at the medical records for 372 frail seniors who had been
treated by two managed-care organizations over the course of a year. The
researchers documented the medical care that each patient received and
then judged it using standard indicators of quality.
This study's findings suggest doctors and other health
care providers may overlook some common problems of old age -- a lapse
that can lead to multiple health issues.
For example, this report found that many seniors with an
unsteady gait don't get the help they need, like physical therapy to
improve their walking ability.
Without that therapy, seniors run a greater risk of
falling and breaking a hip. A broken hip can, in some cases, trigger an
admission to a nursing home, Wenger says.
The new findings fit with other evidence suggesting that
the health care system needs to improve, says Daniel Stryer at the Agency
for Healthcare Research and Quality, part of the Department of Health and
Human Services.
Still, this study looked only at a small number of
patients. It's not enough of a sample to conclude that seniors across the
nation aren't getting the care they need, cautions Yank Coble, spokesman
for the American Medical Association.
He says that lots of factors go into health care
quality, including the amount of time doctors have: He says many doctors
face a major time-crunch that doesn't allow them to focus on more than the
most pressing medical problem of the visit.
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