The Quality of Health Care Received by Older Adults
Abstract
In the United States today, more than 40 cents of every health care dollar is spent on people who are 65 or older. Older adults suffer from a multitude of conditions and are especially susceptible to the effects of poor care, yet we know relatively little about the quality of health care older people receive. A team of experts from RAND Health, a unit of the RAND Corporation, has developed a system for measuring the quality of care delivered to the elderly and used the system to assess the quality of care given to a group of community-dwelling older adults who were members of a managed care plan. The key findings from their assessment are as follows: vulnerable elders receive about half of the care recommended, and the quality of care varies widely from one condition and type of care to another; preventive care suffers the most, while indicated diagnostic and treatment procedures are provided most frequently; care for geriatric conditions, such as incontinence and falls, is poorer than care for general medical conditions such as hypertension that affect adults of all ages; and physicians often fail to prescribe recommended medications for older adults. (4 figures)
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 01, 2004
- Accession Number
- ADA426643