By Jamie Thompson
EMS1 senior editor
BALTIMORE — The “graying of America” is impacting all walks of life — and EMS is no exception. People aged 65 and older made up 12.4 percent of the population in 2000. It’s predicted to rise to 16.3 percent by 2020, while in 2030 nearly one in five Americans will be 65 and older.
Paul Werfel told a session at EMS Today on Thursday that the EMS needs of elderly people can only increase. He told the audience it means EMS providers need to ensure they are offer ready to offer care to this growing segment of the population effectively and with respect.
Addressing the soaring number of older people, Werfel said of all people aged 65 who have ever lived, two-thirds are alive today.
“If you don’t respond to old people’s homes in your district, you certainly will be,” Werfel said. “My suspicion is you already are.”
Wefel, who is the Director of the Paramedic Program and a Clinical Assistant Professor of Health Sciences at the State University of New York, said 80 percent of people’s health care costs are spent in the last 10 years of life.
He told the session the main impacts on the health of older people are respiratory changes, cardiovascular changes, renal system changes, nervous system changes and musculoskeletal changes.
Offering “geriatric assessment pearls,” Werfel said older people tend to have many illnesses at once and that assessment can be difficult due to chronic conditions. In addition, response to pain can be diminished and the patient/pre-hospital practitioner may underestimate the severity of the problem, he added.
Werfel told the session that another issue is the fact older people are often afraid to go the hospital. “It’s been my experience that many old people don’t want to leave,” he said. “They see the hospital as ‘dead,’ that ‘I’m out of here.’ I do not believe that elderly people want to be in hospital.”
When it comes to physical exams, layers of clothing and not knowing an older person’s normal, healthy appearance can present problems for EMS personnel, Werfel said.
He went on to tell the audience that accidental OD accounts for 30 percent of all drug induced admissions for older people because of factors such as not compliant, confusion, poor vision and self selection.