Month: November 2016

New programs aim to give young docs skills to care for aging adults

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Excerpt from a story published on healthjournalism.org.

Athens, Ga., is a small city about 75 miles east of Atlanta. Older adults love its low cost of living, community-mindedness and proximity to a major urban area. What they don’t love, however, is the poor access to specialized senior health care.

Nearly 10 percent (11,830) of the city’s 120,000 residents are over age 65, but only three office-based geriatricians practice here.

The geriatrician shortage is not unique to Athens, to Georgia, or to the United States. There are fewer than 7,500 board-certified geriatricians nationwide — about 2,000 seniors for every geriatrician — according to the American Geriatrics Society. This ratio is more than double of what one doctor reasonably can handle, the society says, and doesn’t include the two-thirds of other people over 65 who do not need specialized care —  not yet, anyway.

About 13,000 additional geriatricians are needed to meet the current demand for care, according to estimates. Moreover, as the boomer generation ages, the geriatrician workforce will need to grow by 1,500 annually for the next 15 years to satisfy the nation’s need for senior care by 2030.

In Georgia, about 19 percent of the state’s population will be over 65 by then — hovering around 2 million — calling for triple the current number of geriatricians.

Athens-area residents may be better off than some Georgians because they have access to St. Mary’s Hospital and Piedmont Athens Regional. As rural hospitals continue to shutter, Athens is set to play an important role in preparing young doctors to care for elders.

geriatrician-shortage

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Hospice care improves quality of life at the end

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Excerpt from a story that appeared in Georgia Health News

Surgeon and bestselling author Atul Gawande writes that he never learned about mortality in medical school. He learned to examine, prescribe and operate, but not how to help patients die well.

It wasn’t until he was a practicing surgeon that he confronted the idea of a “good” death — a death consistent with a life fully lived. A death that lets the patient be surrounded by family and friends, instead of by doctors and humming medical machines. A death that is calm, soft and warm, instead of chaotic, mechanical and cold.

That sounds good, but it is not the death that most Americans experience.

Fewer than one-third of Medicare beneficiaries actually die at home, although 90 percent told Kaiser Family Foundation that this was their preference. And fewer than half of Medicare patients use the hospice benefit they’re entitled to.

Hospice care is a Medicare benefit that provides nursing, counseling and pain management, known as palliative care, usually in patients’ homes. Aiming to provide quality of life in a comfortable setting, hospice services offer coordinated care rarely seen in other medical contexts — but only to patients who have six months or less to live as determined by their doctor.

The costs of the care are covered for eligible patients, with the hospice provider billing either Medicare or private insurers, and the services are delivered right to the doorstep.

“It’s like wearing a life preserver,” said Martha Sweat of Athens.

Her husband, Ricky Sweat, signed up for hospice care in August, shortly after he was told he had amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig’s disease, at the age of 60. Since both Sweats were under 65, they didn’t qualify for Medicare, but their private insurance covered the hospice bills.

Ricky’s disease progressed rapidly. And this week, he passed away where he wanted to be – at home.

Read more here.