Most Elderly Don't Get Good Medical Care: Study (KOLD News 13 Tuscon)

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Most Elderly Don't Get Good Medical Care: Study (KOLD News 13 Tuscon)

Published: Mon, 22 Oct 2007 14:27:57 GMT

MONDAY, Oct. 22 (HealthDay News) -- The quality of care received by vulnerable elderly Medicare, Medicaid patients is barely acceptable, a team of U.S. researchers report.

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[Jeffrey D Phillips]

This really comes as no surprise

My experience in Nursing Homes tells me that there is a dichotomy in the views of medical professionals regarding the elderly.

View number one: Life is worth living at any age, let's do the best we can to keep your life the best it can be.

View number two: you are going to die soon so there's really no reason going to a lot of trouble to try to improve things, just get used to the idea that illness and death are inevitable.

This is so pervasive that in a nursing home setting you can find one nursing station that is all view number one, and another wher it is all view number two. the number two nurses look at the eye doctor like "you are totally wasting your time" while the number one nurses keep hoping you can miraculously reverse the effects of end stage AMD. I have seen this in PCP's as well as in nurse practitioners.

 

[Mark Zaremba]

My experience in Nursing Homes tells me that there is a dichotomy in the views of medical professionals regarding the elderly.

View number one: Life is worth living at any age, let's do the best we can to keep your life the best it can be.

View number two: you are going to die soon so there's really no reason going to a lot of trouble to try to improve things, just get used to the idea that illness and death are inevitable.

This is so pervasive that in a nursing home setting you can find one nursing station that is all view number one, and another wher it is all view number two. the number two nurses look at the eye doctor like "you are totally wasting your time" while the number one nurses keep hoping you can miraculously reverse the effects of end stage AMD. I have seen this in PCP's as well as in nurse practitioners.

Very well put. And don't forget the family members. It's always sad when you know you can help someone -- whether it's new glasses, or a cataract surgery referral -- and the patient's son/daughter/whoever basically gives you view #2 above.

 

[Brad Kardatzke]

I was reading a health care blog yesterday. A non-health care professional was upset about the care she had received at a recent hospital visit. She was asking, "why?"

I don't think we ask that question enough?

 

[Jeffrey D Phillips]

Why ask why?

I was reading a health care blog yesterday. A non-health care professional was upset about the care she had received at a recent hospital visit. She was asking, "why?"

I don't think we ask that question enough?

I am curious whether she was upset about the overall care, or the way she was handled? Humans tend to get riled when expectation does not meet reality. Did she expect something different? What was so disappointing to her?

 

[Brad Kardatzke]

I think she was mad about a lot of things. Some of it was the price, she made comments about the RNs, price of pharmaceuticals. I think people are just mad at anything that they perceive as medicine.

 

[J Martin]

I think many people have come to see the "right" to health care as the same as the rights granted by God or the US Constitution. They get angry when everything isn't the way the want it, and for free / cheap.

When you look at how much medicine has improved since the 1960s, how could it NOT cost more?

EVERYTHING ELSE DOES!

Access to good heath care is the right thing, good quality in health care is the right thing, but health care itself is hardy a "right".