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BALTIMORE (Map, News) - Monica Brunson joins her 82-year-old grandmother for nearly every doctor’s visit, asking questions, taking notes and getting copies of medical records.
“There is so much information coming from the doctor that you can’t catch it all,” said Brunson, a senior care consultant in Baltimore who advises families on senior care and also accompanied her ill mother on visits.
Brunson is not alone. More than 38 percent of elderly patients bring a family member or caregiver into the exam room with them, and in turn say they are more satisfied with their doctors, according to a new study from researchers at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
“There is a growing realization that family caregivers are participating more and more in health care processes,” said Jennifer Wolff, a study author and assistant professor.
This study is the first large-scale look of the relationship between patients and physicians, showing how common — and important — these companions are.
Researchers used data from the nationwide 2004 Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey, which includes more than 12,000 patients age 65 and older. The accompanied patients tended to be older, sicker and less educated.
Most of the companions, often a spouse or adult child, helped by recording and explaining the physician’s instructions, providing patient information and asking questions.
The findings dispute concerns that a companion might get in the way of the patient’s decision making and relationship with the doctor.
“It raises the possibility that communication with the patient and the visit companion as a collective entity may be beneficial,” Wolff said.
If a caregiver avoids being antagonistic, doctors will be receptive to partnering with the caregiver, Brunson said.
The results are “not surprising,” said Suzanne Mintz, president of the National Family Caregivers Association.
The notion of intruding on patient autonomy is “old-fashioned,” and the complexity of medicine requires that additional support, she said.
“As more people get a deeper understanding of how health care really is provided,” Mintz said, “they recognize that having another pair of ears — and indeed another mouth — can really make a difference.”
smichael@baltimoreexaminer.com
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9:13 AM MST on Thu., Jul. 10, 2008 re: "Labor, liberal groups press for national health plan"
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Examiner Reader said:
Wait a second....40 million dollars to "roll" out a National Campaign and an additional 25 million over the next five months? Wouldnt 65 million dollars be better spent on providing health care to those who truly need it. Typical liberal program
7 agree | 7 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
Health Insurance companies don't have to answer to anyones questions about there practices! They are mean people!
6 agree | 6 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
The high cost of health care is a symptom that something is wrong. Attempts to reform the system have failed because insurers drive regulation and company rating practices are un-constitutional. In Michigan, the smallest entities, those companies that provide coverage with only one person covered pay an additional 25% of premium. This violates the Law of Large Numbers and the purpose of insurance, which is to provide economic security for random illness and accidents. The smallest entities are bearing the greatest economic burden. Insurance companies are also failing to manage catastrophic risks. We need to talk about the issues and their impact. Things like abortion consequences and applied reproductive technologies that result in catastrophic claims, which can cost $200,000; $300,000 or more.
8 agree | 6 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
Another push for a socialistic society.
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Examiner Reader said:
It is the health insurance industry that is the problem. It's a private club for those that can afford it.Health care is expensive because of them!They are stealing us blind and nobody seems to get it!Universal health care is not for everybody.Because you will have those that are exempt from it because they work for the goverment.
7 agree | 6 disagree
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Shelley Trazkovich MD said:
I did some of that pulling myself up by my bootstraps and forgoing vacations and all the things that premed students and medical students and interns and resident doctors do. That other reader can call me lazy, but I work harder now just to survive some of the minutes in my days. I am a disabled doctor who knows that the US ranks 37th in health care quality measures. Unless you are a CEO of a health insurance company, you haven't worked enough to pay your medical bills if you get seriously ill in this country. I want a health care plan in this country that covers everyone comprehensively with quality medical care. I want health security for you and me and I want to stop having our health care dollars being drained away by the wasteful insurance companies that save money by denying health care as much as they can get away with it. Our health insurance is cruel to those who are ill. We need to open our eyes and look at what is working in the other industrialized countries around us.
12 agree | 11 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
I do not want universal health care, and I don't want it forced upon me. What about working two or three jobs, foregoing vacations and pulling yourself up by your own bootstraps? Instead of crying "give me, give me, give me," be responsible for your miserable self and put in an honest day's work seven days a week. There are more of us doing that then you lazy people realize.
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Examiner Reader said:
I dont know about you people, but I love paying an arm and a leg for the worst healthcare of most civilized nations.
12 agree | 8 disagree
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Ron George said:
We appreciate your interest in "Healthcare Gaming Coming of Age" (May 13, 2008), but please be aware of several errors of fact in your story. * BreakAway did not recently win a contract with Texas A&M. BreakAway was hired by Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi in 2005 to produce Pulse!! (two exclamation points). * The Medical College of Georgia has nothing whatever to do with the development of Pulse!! but has recently contracted BreakAway to produce a product derived from Pulse!! technology, which has been licensed to BreakAway by the Texas A&M System, which owns the Pulse!! intellectual property. MCG is a BreakAway customer not a developer of Pulse!! * Pulse!! was conceived and is designed, so far, to provide medical education for physicians. There are no Pulse!! cases in development for nursing education. Your news product would be more credible without these misleading errors of fact.
8 agree | 7 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
The hispanic population grew and 99% of that growth is probably attributed to illegals. Let's reward them for breaking the law by giving them health care. Great idea.
11 agree | 10 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
There are only 21 products meeting the CCHIT 2007 criteria - even fewer actually implemented products. Back-up data on a simple hard drive like the i-book - a terabyte (million million) of storage costs less than 300 dollars at Costco! The practice is less likely to burn down since there aren't so many paper files... and less paper cuts... and less lifting of heavy boxes of paper records... and let's just get with the program and stop dragging our feet - and make it work!
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