HOW YOU CAN HELP ENSURE THE FUTURE OF QUALITY GERIATRIC CARE
Clinical Geriatrics: Volume 13 - Number 07 - July, 2005
HOW YOU CAN HELP ENSURE THE FUTURE OF QUALITY GERIATRIC CARE
Barney S. Spivack, MD, FACP, CMD, Associate Physician Editor, Clinical Geriatrics
How often have you been asked, “What is a geriatrician?” and related questions that point to the need to improve the awareness of our profession and its value? Raising that awareness is more important than ever because geriatrics is truly at a turning point. No doubt you are already aware that the field faces obstacles: Few students and trainees in medicine and other health disciplines are choosing geriatrics (thereby contributing to a growing shortage of geriatricians and other geriatrics professionals), and shortfalls in funding for both research and education are limiting our ability to improve quality health care for older adults. Together, we must lead the effort to overcome these obstacles. The American Geriatrics Society’s recent report, “Caring for Older Americans: The Future of Geriatric Medicine,” brings the challenges ahead into sharp focus. As a result of flaws in the nation’s health care delivery system, the shortage of geriatrics professionals will soon reach crisis proportions. Although the number of Americans ages 65 years and older will double—reaching roughly 71 million—in the next 25 years, the number of professionals trained to meet the unique health care needs of older adults is already declining. If the trend continues, the report estimates that there will be 36,000 fewer geriatricians than are needed by 2030, the year the youngest of the nation’s baby boomers reach retirement age. Because geriatricians train medical students, primary care physicians, nurses, and other professionals in elder care, and conduct geriatrics research, the impact will be significant. One of the more alarming statistics in the AGS report: In 2003 there were only 62 physician-fellows in their second or subsequent years of training in geriatrics research nationwide. Chief among the factors contributing to these workforce and other problems, the report notes, are Medicare reimbursement policies that discourage trainees from entering geriatrics, and other shortcomings in the nation’s health care financing delivery system, as we have discussed previously in this column. The work of more than 200 geriatrics experts, “Caring for Older Americans” concludes by laying out five goals to safeguard quality geriatrics care. These include: “To unite professional and lay groups in the effort to influence public policy to continually improve the health and health care of seniors.” This is where you can play a leading role. To the public and to policymakers, geriatrics professionals and members of organizations such as the AGS and its state and regional affiliates, are the “face” of geriatrics. By working together and collaborating with other professional and lay organizations, we can help the public and policymakers recognize the importance of promoting quality geriatrics care, research, and education. We can talk to local and national media, write letters to editors, call radio talk shows, submit op-ed articles, and ensure that our patients and their families are aware of these issues and can bring them forward to their elected representatives. We can contact federal, state, and local legislators by phone, e-mail, and letter. As physicians and other health care professionals, we are skilled at communication, and our efforts have the potential for far-reaching effects. The AGS has made available step-by-step instructions and background information on these public policy efforts to make the time we dedicate to these efforts most productive (see www.americangeriatrics.org/policy). In all of these ways, we can accomplish a number of necessary objectives. To begin, we can help paint a more realistic picture of aging. (Despite media fascination with “superhero elders,” geriatrics research has taught us that, as we age, we are increasingly likely to develop the chronic diseases that are a focus of geriatric medicine.)
http://www.consultant360.com/articles/how-you-can-help-ensure-future-quality-geriatric-care
