Elder Care and the Whole Patient

An elderly person with no specific deadly illness like cancer, is still likely to suffer from many of the standard ravages of old age: high blood pressure, cholesterol issues, weak bones, perhaps some anxiety about it all. To treat these health issues that one person will see a cardiologist, orthopedist, psychiatrist, endocrinologist, neurologist and more. Each will prescribe tests, procedures, treatments, medications. Who coordinates it all? Who's looking out to make sure that the new drug prescribed by the neurologist for back pain, doesn't conflict with, or diminish the efficacy of ,a drug prescribed by the cardiologist? The answer, usually, is: No one.

This is one of the most serious matters confronting care givers, care managers and, of course, the elderly person themselves. Unfortunately, though our medical system puts us in the position of needing to monitor medications and our elder loved ones' physical and mental well-being, we are often not the most competent to do so.

Purely on the physical side, it is known that, when you get to your 80s and 90s, your body becomes exquisitely sensitive to drugs. For this reason, not only are lower doses sometimes used for the elderly, but their body doesn't clear the medications as swiftly and fully as does a young person's body. Thus, periodically, drug toxicity can develop in the elderly, simply because their system hasn't eliminated the daily dose of drugs as it should.

There are geriatric internists who strive to maintain a thorough list of their patient's specialists and the medications each prescribes. But they rarely have the support of those specialists. And without that support, which entails sharing of information after every visit, their hands are tied. It's not that doctors don't want to work together. It's rather that specialists in particular have a narrow field of vision about what they're treating. Simply by virtue of having selected a specialty, their tendency is to focus on that part of the patient's body exclusively, rather than viewing their patient as a whole.

A new approach to achieving this Holy Grail of being viewed and treated as a whole person, rather than as a heart or a spine, is being implemented at certain clinics and hospitals. It's called a "medical home." This is not the same as our current system of managed care, where the internist acts as gatekeeper, referring their patient to this or that specialist. In the medical home concept the internist is the head of a team, keeping track of treatments, making sure specialists know of a patient's progress and generally ensuring that treatment is seamless, no matter which physician a patient is seeing.

Now, take this concept and factor in the frailty, dementia, worries of old age. You can see immediately that this approach would be a godsend for the elderly. The model is not at all widespread yet, but it's still worth using this model when visiting with your parent's internist, to see whether they can provide some thing similar to it. I advise, though, that even those who are willing to attempt to keep track of what each specialist is proposing, will need your help. Since your parent's doctors will not consider themselves a team, you may find you'll have to do the legwork and phone work to make sure information from each specialist gets sent to your internist, to be added to your parent's general file.

This effort is hugely worthwhile, as I can personally attest. My experience is that, when doctors know that an elderly patient has an advocate who's tracking medications, and an internist who's interested in the overall well-being of your parent, they unconsciously pay more attention themselves. I have never encountered a doctor's assistant who wasn't willing to fax the information I requested to my mother's internist. And I've never encountered a physician who wasn't willing to take a few moments to explain to me their rational for changing a dosage or a drug.

So, get involved with your parent's physicians. Keep your own record of what drugs and dosages your parents use. Follow-up with the doctor's office after a visit and ask them to transmit their records to your parent's internist. These days this can be as simple as a short fax or email. If something significant changes with your parent's health, you'll be amazed at how helpful these small efforts will prove to be.