”A meal of medicine to eat more than 60 kinds!” , “It’s true, it’s really more than 60 kinds, not more than 60 capsules.”
In the comprehensive outpatient clinic, the elderly people filled out their medication list for the first time, which startled the doctors. From the list of elderly people, most of them have the problem of overdosing, taking one or two dozen kinds of medication at any one time. The accumulation of medication in specialized clinics, the lack of comprehensive geriatric clinics, and the wrong concept of medication for the elderly not only lead to the waste of medical resources, but also make the elderly “sick” when “treating”, which becomes one of the major health problems. He Zhen, Department of Internal Medicine, Henan Cancer Hospital
How did more than 60 kinds of drugs come about?
”This is the result of the lack of comprehensive geriatric clinics.” According to reports, the elderly still see the traditional subspecialty model, heart, liver, spleen, lungs, eyes, nose, ears, throat …… an organ system problems, you hang a department number to see a doctor.
Over the past few years, that old man has seen more than a dozen departments from the community to secondary and tertiary hospitals, including endocrine, neurological, gastrointestinal, and cardiac departments, and some outpatient clinics have also seen both Chinese and Western medicine, and each time he sees a doctor, he receives back three or five kinds of medicine. In addition, after watching TV and listening to the radio by themselves, the elderly bought calcium supplements, antihypertensive and other drugs.
”Specialist visits, on the disease treatment, the medicine can only be prescribed more and more. Because more chronic diseases, the elderly have been insisting on taking drugs, resulting in the result of a meal to eat 60 kinds of drugs.”
Excessive treatment is harmful to the body
Many elderly people have the problem of overmedication, taking more than ten kinds of drugs at any one time.
Mr. Gao, who lives in Xizhimen, said his father is 82 years old and eats at least a dozen medicines a day, with more than 100 bottles and jars – Luluo Xi, Kang Le, Qinglung Yang Yin Pills, Rhodiola, Panax notoginseng powder, Blood Setong, and also drink bags of punch, and Byosu Ping. In the morning, listen to the medicine program on the radio, watch the medicine classroom on TV, read the books are commercially bought health books, bought more than 30 books, sometimes let the children also take medicine once they come home.
The United States has conducted a study of elderly patients in a hospital, a third of them have overmedication problems, “overmedication” is the third cause of inpatient mortality.
”For example, the elderly will use antibiotics for a cold, antibiotics will be excessive diarrhea, and the need to take intestinal probiotics; antihypertensive drugs to eat too much, you should eat Valium tablets at night, Valium tablets to eat too much, and will cause drowsiness, hypotension, memory loss … …”
”Drug reduction” clinics need to move forward to the community
According to reports, foreign hospitals have a special geriatric department, but there is no professional geriatric specialist certification system in China. Last year, Concord Hospital opened its first comprehensive geriatric clinic, in which the reduction of medication has become one of the important tasks of the comprehensive clinic.
”Many elderly people can reduce their medication by half and have no impact on their health, and the elderly cannot see a doctor like a young person.” In the comprehensive outpatient clinic, geriatricians provide “one-stop” services for the elderly, including health care, medication consultation, disease prevention and treatment, successfully avoiding the problem of repeated medication and helping the elderly save a lot of medical expenses.
However, a comprehensive geriatric clinic in a tertiary care hospital is far from meeting the needs of the city’s more than 2 million elderly people. “By the time the elderly come to a tertiary hospital, they may have already seen many specialists.”
Some community hospitals have cooperated to provide comprehensive outpatient services, allowing the elderly to prevent diseases at the source and comprehensive treatment in the community, but they have failed to receive a positive response because of poor “compatibility” with the health insurance catalog and lack of government institutional support.
Related suggestions
Spend 1 cent on prevention, top 6 cents on treatment
There is an international calculation of medical care for the elderly, spending 1 cent on disease prevention can reduce the investment in medical treatment by 6 cents. For example, there are special fall prevention departments in foreign countries that teach the elderly how to prevent falls and calculate the fall risk index based on diseases – for many elderly people, a fall and fracture can mean being bedridden for years or even being unable to get up again.
Experts suggest that the public should pay more attention to disease prevention from a young age. Seniors should learn to communicate with an open mind. This mental health prevention can lead to less medication and better health for the elderly.