Seniors' Health Is Better in Areas with Lots of Doctors

If you're wondering where to live, and you care about your health, choose a place with lots of primary care physicians. A recent study has shown that in areas with lots of primary care doctors, seniors do better. The seniors are less likely to be sent to the hospital because the doctors will treat them and manage the illness outside the hospital.

The research was conducted by the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice, and it analyzed Medicare claims from 5.1 million beneficiaries. What's fascinating is that not only were hospitalizations 10% lower, but people over 65 had death rates that were 5% lower, when they lived in a place with a high concentration of doctors.

The data did show that Medicare spent a little bit more on patients in areas with more primary doctors. But I think it's worth it.

Read more in the New York Times:

Health

Patterns: Seniors Fare Better Where Doctors Are

By RONI CARYN RABIN

Published: May 30, 2011

Older people in areas with high concentrations of primary care doctors are hospitalized less often for conditions that can be treated outside hospitals and have lower death rates, researchers find.

Handling Multiple Chronic Conditions

Did you know that two-thirds of older adults suffer from multiple chronic conditions? As we're living longer, more sedentary lives, more problems just build up.

In December, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services issued a report:
Strategic Framework on Multiple Chronic Conditions on the challenge our nation and its people are facing in dealing with this problem. How can we reduce the costs for society, taxpayers and the individuals who are afflicted by so many different ailments?

Big pharma and specialist seem to want to treat each condition in isolation and with drugs. But this approach has the very real potential to wreak havoc with unintended drug interactions. We need a new system with one doctor in charge of a team that works together.

 We individuals need to read up on this challenge and put pressure on our congress, our president and the medical establishment to start implementing some real solutions. The models are out there at places like the Mayo Clinic. The problem is that there are too many special interest groups with too much money and entrenched positions who are controlling the situation.

Electronic health records can be part of the solution. Being an advocate for your own health is another. And expecting the medical establishment to use more "best practices" is still another. 

Read more at:
http://www.hhs.gov/news/press/2010pres/12/20101214a.html and in Jane Brody's column in The New York Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/22/health/22brody.html

Walking to Stay Healthy

Want to stay healthy? What to stay out of a nursing home? Here is an organization in Santa Cruz, California, that helps people over 50 achieve those goals through walking, hiking and social games. It's called the Redwood Fitness Alliance.

http://www.redwoodsfitnessalliance.org/

They are affiliated with the Lifelong Fitness Alliance program, based on from research by the Prevention Research Center at the Stanford University School of Medicine.

Check it out.

I think I may try to start a program like this in Darien, CT, where I live.