Maintain the functional status of the elderly to the greatest extent, and comprehensive evaluation will help our parents live better and happier lives
The physical function of the elderly is very different from that of the young. It is like a machine that has been used for a long time. If this part is screwed, other parts may be loose. In recent years, geriatrics has gradually shifted from focusing on "disease" to focusing on "people", no longer pursuing the perfection of a single part, but focusing on the overall function of the "machine".
Through the comprehensive assessment of the elderly, it is possible to understand the abilities and existing problems of the elderly in medicine, psychology, social behavior, environment and their functional activities, so as to develop a comprehensive and coordinated short-term or long-term diagnosis and treatment for elderly patients. Rehabilitation and care plans to maximize the functional status of the elderly and improve the quality of life.
Grandma Jia found the culprit of her pain
70-year-old grandmother Jia often felt pain all over her body. She went to the hospital for various examinations but couldn't find out the cause. After taking a lot of painkillers, the pain did not relieve much. In late October this year, Grandma Jia was admitted to the Department of Geriatrics of Beijing Longfu Hospital because of acute exacerbation of heart disease and lung disease.
According to Grandma Jia's actual situation, six medical staff from the comprehensive assessment team for the elderly in Beijing Longfu Hospital came to Grandma Jia's bed, patiently asked about the condition, and performed a detailed physical examination of the elderly.
"Do you usually live with your family? Can you go out and buy groceries by yourself..." In the comprehensive assessment of old age, these seemingly ordinary questions are functional indicators for judging an old man's overall living ability.
Through "chat", the medical staff learned that Grandma Jia's only son lives abroad all year round, and that she and her wife have been empty nests for seven or eight years. Both elderly people suffer from a variety of chronic diseases, especially in the past two years, her husband's physical condition has been deteriorating, which makes her very worried.
And Grandma Jia's own sleep quality is getting worse and worse, only sleeping two to three hours a night on average. Finally, the anxiety rating scale indicated "moderate anxiety" and the depression rating scale indicated "mild depression", considering that the elderly were in an anxious and depressive state.
As a result, the doctor gave Grandma Jia a mood-regulating drug. After taking the drug for about a week, the elderly's pain symptoms were significantly improved. Four weeks after the medication, Grandma Jia’s pain symptoms disappeared miraculously and her sleep quality improved.
It turns out that Grandma Jia’s pain symptoms are medically called "somatization symptoms". In layman's terms, the patient has various symptoms of discomfort, but no organic abnormalities can be found on examination, mainly due to anxiety , Depression and other bad emotions.
"Comprehensive assessment of the elderly is one of the core technologies of modern geriatrics and an effective means of screening for senile syndromes." said Song Qingyang, standing committee member of the Comprehensive Assessment Branch of the Chinese Society of Gerontology and Geriatrics and director of the Department of Geriatrics, Longfu Hospital, Beijing , The elderly often have multiple diseases, that is, multiple organs, multiple tissues, multiple systems show degenerative changes, and more complicated diseases. Compared with common chronic diseases such as hypertension, coronary heart disease and diabetes, the elderly are more likely to be affected by the symptoms of elderly syndromes such as incontinence, malnutrition, weakness, senile depression, sleep disorders, memory loss, delirium, and falls. And family members and even medical staff ignored. In fact, old age syndrome has a great impact on the quality of life and life expectancy of the elderly.
Song Qingyang emphasized that the comprehensive assessment of the elderly can enable medical staff to fully grasp the physical condition of elderly patients, discover potential risks, prevent or reduce the occurrence of senile syndrome, avoid or delay the emergence of common problems in the elderly, and save or reduce the medical expenses of the elderly; At the same time, it can also enhance the health management awareness of the elderly and increase the healthy life expectancy.
When is the need for comprehensive elderly assessment
The concept of comprehensive assessment of the elderly was first proposed by the United Kingdom, and it has been carried out in some medical institutions in my country since about 2010. In view of the general inadequacy of Chinese geriatrics practitioners' understanding of comprehensive assessment of the elderly, and lack of operational norms for reference, in 2012, relevant experts in Beijing jointly wrote the "Comprehensive Assessment of the Elderly", which collected and sorted out a large number of assessment scales or questionnaires at home and abroad. , Aims to provide elderly medical workers with a tool to implement comprehensive evaluation of the elderly.
The Chinese Medical Association Geriatrics Branch organized experts to compile the "Expert Consensus on the Application of Comprehensive Assessment Technology for the Elderly in China", which was released in 2017. Beijing Longfu Hospital has also implemented a multidisciplinary collaborative diagnosis and treatment model based on comprehensive evaluation, and has accumulated a large amount of clinical experience. It has organized relevant experts to compile "Geriatrics Work Manual" and "Diagnosis and Treatment Routines of Common Diseases in the Elderly" and other books.
“In the initial stage of the comprehensive assessment of the elderly, most of the assessment scales were borrowed from and adapted from other countries, and the assessment tools were also single scales. With the continuous practice and development of this work, in recent years, many experts and institutions have been working Research on localized scales suitable for the elderly in our country. At the same time, the evaluation tool has gradually developed from a single scale to an integrated scale, which is more conducive to the overall graded evaluation of the elderly." According to Song Qingyang, more and more Medical institutions recognize the importance of comprehensive assessment of the elderly. Take Beijing as an example. Geriatrics in many secondary and above medical institutions are being developed. Some community health service centers and long-term care institutions also have applications, but the depth and breadth are different.
The reporter learned that the comprehensive assessment of the elderly is mainly divided into six major items.
1
General medical evaluation includes medical history collection, physical examination and various auxiliary examinations.
2
Physical function evaluation includes the evaluation of the elderly's ability of daily living, nutritional status, balance function and gait, vision and hearing, etc.
3
Mental and psychological status assessment includes the assessment of cognitive function, depression and anxiety, mood and emotion, and delirium in the elderly.
4
The evaluation of social behavior ability includes the evaluation of the role and role adaptation, culture, family and interpersonal relationship of the elderly.
5
Environmental health assessment includes the assessment of the living environment, social environment, spiritual environment and cultural environment of the elderly.
6
Other evaluations include the evaluation of the moral health of the elderly, dietary health, etc.
"The content of the assessment of elderly patients varies from person to person, especially some elderly people who can no longer benefit from routine assessment. For example, for elderly patients with end-stage cancer, the general assessment content is pressure ulcer risk, nutrition, mental status, and expectations. Survival period, etc.; for the disabled elderly, the assessment focuses on common risks such as mental psychology, swallowing, nutrition, pressure sores, and falling from bed; for the elderly with severe dementia, the assessment focuses on whether there are mental symptoms such as delirium, the risk of falling, and the risk of losing. "Song Qingyang said.
It is currently believed that 10 types of elderly patients should undergo comprehensive evaluation.
1
Hospitalized elderly over 60
2
Elderly patients undergoing neurological, respiratory, cardiac and other rehabilitation treatments
3
Elderly patients with 3 or more diseases
4
Patients with common symptoms of old age syndrome
5
Patients with common problems in the elderly, such as bedsores, constipation, malnutrition, motor dysfunction or physical disabilities
6
Elderly patients with multiple medication problems (using 5 or more medications at the same time)
7
Elderly patients requiring long-term care
8
Elderly patients with mental disorders or certain psychological problems
9
Elderly patients with certain social and behavioral abnormalities
10
There may be elderly patients with poor living, social and cultural environments
Promotion of this model requires policy support
"Personnel who implement comprehensive evaluation of the elderly need to have certain qualifications, and the evaluation should be completed by a multidisciplinary team." According to Song Qingyang, taking the hospital as an example, the comprehensive evaluation team for elderly is composed of geriatricians, clinical pharmacists, psychiatrists, and rehabilitation It is composed of doctors, nutritionists and other specialist doctors. Conduct multidisciplinary discussions for each elderly patient who needs to be evaluated.
Among them, screening assessments are mostly completed by doctors and nurses in the Department of Geriatrics. If further evaluation is needed, it will be detailed to the doctor in the relevant department. For example, if it is evaluated that the elderly have multiple medication problems, clinical pharmacists will conduct detailed evaluation of multiple medications; if the elderly have serious cardiovascular problems, cardiologists will intervene.
Uncle Ma, who underwent a comprehensive evaluation and diagnosis and treatment guidance program at Beijing Longfu Hospital, said with satisfaction: "I have been sick from head to toe, including hypertension, coronary heart disease, cerebral infarction, diabetes and osteoarthrosis. I have to take it. It’s okay to take medicine to cure the disease. They can be combined together. I have to take more than 20 medicines every day. I am full by taking medicine. It’s too much pain! After this assessment, I helped me reduce the medicine to 8. He gave me a nutrition prescription and instructed me how to exercise."
In addition, Beijing Longfu Hospital, as the Dongcheng District Geriatric Medical Evaluation Center, has carried out the National Health Commission's evaluation project for disabled elderly people to achieve hierarchical management of disabled elderly people. At the same time, it also evaluated the elderly care accommodation for 17 elderly care institutions in the region.
Carrying out door-to-door assessment services for Dongcheng District and supporting the elderly, involving medical assessment, daily living ability, cognitive assessment, mental and psychological assessment, and elderly syndrome assessment. Through a standard and a set of procedures, complete the evaluation and draw conclusions. Based on the evaluation results, the elderly are divided into treatment, rehabilitation and palliative care, laying the foundation for the subsequent implementation of in-home medical services, and ensuring the realization of the elderly care service resources in the whole district Fair configuration.
The reporter learned that there are still certain difficulties that need to be broken through to further promote the comprehensive evaluation of the elderly. For example, the comprehensive evaluation of the elderly requires a lot of manpower. Under normal circumstances, it takes about 1 hour to conduct a preliminary evaluation of an elderly patient. If some problems are found, the detailed evaluation will take longer.
However, some evaluation items such as multiple drug evaluation and nutritional evaluation currently lack the support of the overall price system and lack relevant incentive mechanisms for medical staff, which is not conducive to the long-term development of this work. In addition, multi-disciplinary cooperation is indispensable for comprehensive evaluation of the elderly, which requires the support of the whole hospital. However, the current medical staff still lack understanding of comprehensive evaluation of the elderly.
In Song Qingyang’s opinion, comprehensive assessment of the elderly, as one of the essential core technologies of geriatrics, should be routinely carried out after patients are admitted to the hospital, during inpatient diagnosis and treatment, and during discharge follow-up; community service centers should also routinely carry out preliminary screening of comprehensive evaluation of the elderly. ; Medium- and long-term care institutions and elderly people who care for the elderly at home can use it as an important part of the integrated medical care management model.
"I hope that all levels will have a new understanding of the comprehensive evaluation of the elderly, so that more people will know how to screen for the elderly syndrome, know how to do the comprehensive evaluation of the elderly, and provide training and training for relevant practitioners to conduct comprehensive evaluation of the elderly in a more standardized manner. Guidance and policy support." Song Qingyang said.