Health Care Ageism And Senior Profiling

Those of us who regularly work with and for the elderly are painfully aware of pervasive latent ageism that often adversely impacts decision-making  concerning them.   Dr. Val Jones has penned an excellent article in the blog, better health warning of ageism in the health care industry.  Dr. Jones is  board certified in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation,  and serves as a traveling physician to hospitals in 14 states.  She is a graduate of Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and an award-winning writer.  She writes:

 Over the years I’ve become more and more aware of ageism in healthcare – a bias against full treatment options for older patients. Assumptions about lower capabilities, cognitive status and sedentary lifestyle are all too common. There is a kind of “senior profiling” that occurs among hospital staff, and this regularly leads to inappropriate medical care.

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Hospitalized patients are often very different than their usual selves. As we age, we become more vulnerable to medication side-effects, infections, and delirium. And so, the chance of an elderly hospitalized patient being acutely impaired is much higher than the general population. Unfortunately, many hospital-based physicians and surgeons — and certainly nurses and therapists — have little or no prior knowledge of the patient in their care. The patient’s “normal baseline” must often be reconstructed with the help of family members and friends. This takes precious time, and often goes undone.

Years ago, a patient’s family doctor would admit them to the hospital and care for them there. Now that the breadth and depth of our treatments have given birth to an army of sub-specialists, we have increased access to life-saving interventions at the expense of knowing those who need them. This presents a peculiar problem – one in which we spend enormous amounts of resources on diagnostic rabbit holes, because we aren’t certain if our patients’ symptoms are new or old. Was Mrs. Smith born with a lazy eye, or is she having a brain bleed? We could ask a family member, but we usually order an MRI.

My plea is for healthcare staff to be very mindful of the tendency to profile seniors. Just because Mr. Johnson has behavioral disturbances in his hospital room doesn’t mean that he is like that at home. Be especially suspicious of reversible causes of mental status changes in the elderly, and presume that patients are normally functional and bright until proven otherwise.

Dr. Jones gives examples of ageism impacting elderly care.  She describes the plight of an elderly woman admitted to a local hospital where it was presumed, due to her age, that she had advanced dementia. Hospice care was recommended for the woman at discharge. The woman had been leading an active life in retirement, serving  as the chairman of the board at a prestigious company, and caring for her disabled adult son.  She was physically fit , and an "avid Pilates participant."   It turns out that a new physician at her practice recommended a higher dose of diuretic, which she dutifully accepted, and several days later she became delirious from dehydration.  Dr. Jones concludes, "All she needed was IV fluids." 

Dr. Jones explains her recent treatment of an attorney in her 70’s who had a slow growing brain tumor that was causing speech difficulties. The attorney was written off as having dementia until an MRI performed to explore the reason for new left-eye blindness revealed the tumor.  The patient's tumor was removed successfully, but she was denied brain rehabilitation services because of her “history of dementia.”

Another patient, an 80-year-old male, was presumed to be an alcoholic when he showed up to his local hospital.  The patient, had, in fact, suffered a stroke.

These cases, and the countless cases like them, underscore the importance of good health care planning as part of a comprehensive estate plan.   I recommend that every client select and appoint a  trusted primary care physician, by name, in his or her estate planning documents.  I recommend that this person be given the authority to render decisions regarding competency and capacity.  I urge clients to develop a healthy on-going relationship with this physician, so that the physician will be aware of the client's lifestyle, speech patterns, comportment, and the like.  I urge clients to nurture this relationship even during periods during which the client is healthy, and without need for acute care.  Too often, the first time that a medical professional is evaluating a patient is immediately after an acute event or occurrence, inviting erroneous presumptions and judgements.  

Particularly for my clients hoping to Age in Place, this lifetime planning is vitally important. Inviting or acquiescing to a set of circumstances that result in health care decisions being made by professionals without knowledge or experience about you, only increases the possibility that institutional  long term care is your outcome.  Most of my clients work with legal counsel, their families, and their health care professionals to prevent unnecessary and avoidable long term institutional care.  

For more information regarding Aging in Place planning, go here.  For more information regarding LegalVault®, a system through which health care and legal documents are stored, protected and made available to health professionals upon demand, twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a years, go here.