If you’ve been hearing more discussions on senior healthcare among friends and family, you’re not the only one.
The 65-and-older population is projected to grow from 56 million to roughly 82 million by 2040, representing about 23% of the U.S. population.
This drastic change is the reason why so many seniors find it difficult to get the care that meets their complicated healthcare needs. As people age, health care becomes more complex, and you require a doctor who understands the challenges presented by growing old.
That is also why more seniors are actively searching for healthcare professionals trained to provide care for their needs.
The Rising Demand for Focused Care for Older People
The healthcare system for older individuals has changed significantly over the past 20 years. It used to be straightforward; health care has developed into a more complicated and detailed health issue.
The Increasing Demands of Health in Aging
As we get older, we don’t just have a health issue. We have a health issue or several health issues that occur together, which is what physicians call “multimorbidity.” As health issues occur, older adults are routinely managing diabetes with cardiovascular disease, arthritis, or cognitive changes, to name a few.
That being said, the family physician sees it as individual health issues you are seeing them for. While they are well-trained physicians, they are managing health issues one at a time unless you tell them to look at the whole health picture. This is why you are trying to look for geriatricians near me to look at the relationship between all those health issues.
Why General Practitioners Often Fail to Meet Older Patients’ Needs
General practitioners do good work. However, they have training to manage patients in all different age groups. The time you spend with each patient is identical, whether the patient is a 25-year-old with a sprained ankle or an 85-year-old with multiple chronic issues, and all at the same time.
This method may not be sufficient for seniors, who require more time, specialized training, and treatment methods.
Senior healthcare also involves things such as an awareness of how different medications will affect the bodies of older adults, how social isolation can affect seniors’ health, and how to balance quality of life with medical treatments. These subtleties are contributing to the expanding value of specialized care for seniors as the aging population increases.
Grasping the Workforce Challenge
The looming workforce challenge isn’t just due to a growing demand for geriatricians; there is also a workforce shortage. This causes real issues for seniors in terms of finding geriatricians in their area.
Training Pipeline Issues
In fact, medical schools are not producing the number of geriatric specialists to meet current needs, let alone future needs. It is now 2023, and only 174 positions out of 419 geriatrics fellowship training positions matched through the national fellowship specialty match, which is the lowest percentage of all medical specialties.
The lack of geriatric providers results in longer waiting times for appointments, fewer specialized treatment options, and sometimes having to go to a provider who is not specifically trained in geriatrics. This issue continues to worsen as medical students choose to pursue other areas of specialization instead of geriatrics.
The Financial Impact
Money talks, and unfortunately, geriatrics is paid less than many specialties. Within the realities of financial compensation, many competent doctors are looking to a future working as cardiologists, orthopedic surgeons, or other specialists—meteorically higher payment!
Insurance reimbursement and Medicare reimbursement for elder care are less than pediatric care, labor and delivery care, and even care for family medicine. The economic pressure placed on providers creates a cyclical process of fewer physicians committing to this work, perpetuating the shortage.
What is Distinctive about Geriatricians
Understanding the value of geriatricians for older adults can, in part, explain the disparity and why so many older adults are being specifically referred to geriatricians as their primary medical doctor, as opposed to continuing to stay with their established practitioner.
Specialized Training and Competence
Geriatricians receive additional fellowship education focused on health concerns related to older individuals. They gain insights into drug-drug interactions that are more likely to happen in the elderly, differences in how diseases manifest in older individuals, and what to do to evaluate cognition and mobility.
This specialized education can have a meaningful impact on health outcomes. For example, a geriatrician might see confusing behavior in an elderly individual as a result of medication interactions rather than assuming it is dementia, and there is a reasonable chance the solution will be simpler than the investigated options of the non-specialist.
Holistic Health Model
Geriatric care services do not simply treat one symptom; they assess the whole person. Therefore, the geriatric specialists spend time not just on the examination but also on the client’s living situation, family support, functional mobility, and goals when determining the treatment plan.
They are trained to ask a different question: “What matters most to you? ” instead of asking, “What is wrong with you? ” This holistic approach to seniors can promote their independence and quality of life while handling their health concerns.
Tips for Successfully Finding Quality Care
Given the shortage of specialists, locating the appropriate geriatrician requires some thought and patience.
References and Referrals
A good place to start is by asking your doctor for recommendations for geriatricians in your area. Many primary care physicians have established relationships and can help steer you to a doctor in their system. Be sure to ask trusted friends and family if they have had a positive experience with geriatric specialists.
Online directories maintained by medical organizations can also assist in identifying certified geriatricians in your area. Be prepared to wait, however! Popular specialists will often have wait lists of several months for new patients.
Questions to Ask Possible Providers
Once you identify a potential geriatrician, ask how much experience he or she has had with similar conditions. What is their process for managing medications? Do they work with specialists? How do they make treatment decisions?
It is also important to understand their communication style and whether they include family members in decisions about care. Good geriatricians recognize that successful aging is often a team effort that includes family caregivers and other support systems.
Alternative Solutions and Support
Finding a geriatrician is ideal, but there are other avenues to receive age-sensitive care. Alternative Solution:
Age-Friendly Health Systems
The foundation, Hartford Foundation, has likely expanded its Age-Friendly Health Systems Initiative to 3,000 health care locations in the U.S. Evidence-based training of regular health care providers to provide better care for older patients is an objective and benefit of this initiative, even though geriatricians may not be available.
If geriatricians are not easily available, care at age-friendly locations can yield better outcomes than any typical health care setting. These programs focus on what is important to older patients: maintaining mobility and balance, careful management of medications, helping maintain brain health, and respecting values.
Is there a need for more geriatricians?
Geriatrics is prepared for enormous growth. We understand that we are going to need even more geriatricians—up to 30,000 by 2030–and with this vast growth will come creativity and collaboration from our many disciplines and specialties.
Conclusion
The search for quality geriatric care indicates a more expansive thought process around aging and healthcare. More elders are recognizing that their health needs are unique and warrant unique care. While the challenge of firm geriatrician workforce numbers can be frustrating, it does produce opportunities for innovation in delivery and more consideration of elderly health needs.
Whether working with a geriatrician or an age-friendly healthcare provider, your main priority is to advocate for care that understands you as an older adult. Furthermore, increased demand for specialized older adult care is fundamentally transforming not just how we deliver care, but how we evaluate and support aged individuals and communities.
Also Read: Telemedicine in Modern Healthcare: A Smarter Way to See Your Doctor
