Geriatric experts call for better care coordination

A decline in the number geriatricians being trained each year combined with an expected doubling of people over the age of 65 in the next 20 years is leading elder care experts to call for the development of a new care model (Source: “New Model of Care Is Needed, Experts Say,” New York Times, Dec. 30, 2008).

“Those who work in geriatric care are among the worst paid in the health care system,” Dr. Atul Gawande, a surgeon at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston and an associate professor at the Harvard School of Public Health. “Is the time I spend as a surgeon excising a patient’s cancer worth 10 times more than the time the primary care doctor spent finding the cancer in the first place?”

Dr. Gawande and others say beyond better pay for geriatricians, care should be well coordinated and patients and families should be kept involved and educated about the health plan.

One approach being test in the Baltimore-Washington area is having nurses trained in geriatrics team up with physicians to coordinate care among the highest-risk older patients. Social workers trained in aiding the elderly can also help by, for example, performing home assessments to prevent falls and assist the elderly in understanding nutrition.