Understanding How Older Adults Use the U.S. Health Care System: From Measurement to Meaning

https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/M23-3453?utm_campaign=morning_rounds&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=291183600&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-9Zw0EU90ZjOWslW28L-U9YNzBQsOYuUMXrN6U3h8t4DDaSPeYbTWIwK98eUOsFTJvcI7mKLMvwXFDyPTVOJM6l1Y5wHA&utm_content=291183600&utm_source=hs_email Older patients spend three weeks a year getting health care away from home Back in June 2020, I visited a cancer center with a patient participating in a clinical trial to treat her ovarian cancer. Because Covid-19 was fairly new and vaccines were still far away, great efforts were made to streamline visits so no patient was exposed longer than necessary to other people. That came to mind as I read a study in this week's Annals of Internal Medicine tracking just how much time older patients who still live independently spend getting health care outside their homes. The average was three weeks a year in the cross-sectional study of more than 6,500 adults 65 and older (and 50 days for 11% of them). Here’s what made me recall the cancer story: About half of the older patients’ test days and imaging days were not on the same days as office visits, which doesn’t sound like streamlined care. But an editorial hints that could change: “Policymakers and health care systems are increasingly using measures that more fully capture what matters most to many older adults — the amount of time they spend outside of the health care system.” https://www.statnews.com/2020/06/16/cancer-patients-doctors-carry-on-clinical-trials-during-covid-19/?utm_campaign=morning_rounds&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=291183600&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-_LisZ_r3cYX9tcrGnkGdX7oWUt6eofpj6VbBcct-Q5pNqQNeZoxLf9G2vI6RYk5qo4tbU4BD52bbqvhsUUHutxKbI8HA&utm_content=291183600&utm_source=hs_email