Missing from dementia treatment and care

jfkoc

there's a quote function?????

Kibbee

If you live in an area with large health care systems that employ primary and specialty care physicians, select physicians who are ALL employed in the same health care system.  Then all of your LO's physicians will be on a shared medical records system, so all of them can review visit and procedure notes / test results / prescriptions / etc, regardless of which one of the group has seen your LO.  

If you select a primary physician from ABC group, and one specialist from QRS group and another from XYZ group - they will not be on a shared medical record system so will have no way of knowing what another physician has diagnosed / ordered / prescribed for your LO.

A starting point is to understand what health care system your LO's local hospital is a part of, and select a primary care & specialty care from that group.  Then in the event of an visit to the Emergency Department or an inpatient stay, both the hospital-based physicians and the outpatient-based physicians will be on the same shared medical record system.  This is tremendously important to ensure the best physician to physician communication.

For what it is worth, I will not go to a physician who is part of a small, independent group.  I feel there is a lack of oversight issues related to quality, and to adherence to medical best practice guidelines.  

loveskitties

Lady Texan, thank you for sharing your experience.  I truly helps me put things in perspective.  

As my son reminds me, my mother is in charge and until she wants our input or help we can only wait and watch.

My mother has always been a caregiver in the family from the perspective of feeding, household needs and the like.  She is just so unprepared for the medical side of things, particularly this terrible disease.  She is not a researcher...that has always been me.  She is not a joiner of boards like this (I did give her the link)...that has always been me.

All we want is for them to both of them to be safe and well cared for.

Iris L.

harshedbuzz wrote:

CStrope wrote:

  My first surprise was when I brought up anosognosia and she had never heard of it.  

I wonder if you were turfed to a social work graduate student who was doing her clinical rotation. 

I hate to say it, but I attended Memory Cafe run by a PhD psychologist.  He had never heard of anosognosia until I told him what it meant.  He then wrote it down in his notebook.  This man counsels distressed caregivers.  Anosognosia is such a huge aspect of dementia I don't see how anyone can provide care or give advice or support to caregivers without understanding what it means.  Anosognosia should be taught on day one of graduate school.  It's one of the 7 A's of Alzheimer's Disease.

Iris

aod326

I moved to the US from the UK 20 years ago. (And I'm not about to start a discussion about the relative merits of the systems!) It was a culture shock to see commercials for Rx drugs, but I'd known about that. What I couldn't get my head around for quite a while is those caveats at the end, such as "Tell your doctor if you've had a liver transplant." I was flabbergasted - in Britain it would be inconceivable that your doctor wouldn't know! You're followed by a General Practitioner (aka family doctor). I have epilepsy and had been taking the same drug for 15 years at that point. I couldn't fathom why the PCP here wouldn't prescribe it, but sent me to a neurologist.

I am NOT saying the UK system has it right, and REALLY don't want to discuss the pro's and cons of it. Just saying that the system I grew up in does have the "connected-ness".

nancyj194

Stuck in the middle, thank you for your comment. I had to chuckle at the comment about going to the lake for a couple of days. It's a thought, that I could never carry out.