Report: PCPs Need Better Preparation to Care for Older Population

A new report published in Health Affairs discusses the urgency of training primary care physicians (PCPs) on how to provide higher-quality, more cost-effective care to older people with chronic conditions.

The report's authors emphasize that additional education will allow PCPs to "apply principles of geriatrics - for example, optimizing functional autonomy and quality of life - within emerging models of chronic care." They propose that the following policy options be used to drive reform:

• Providing financial support for medical schools and residency programs that adopt appropriate educational innovations
• Tailoring Medicare's educational subsidy to reform graduate medical education
• Invoking state requirements that physicians obtain geriatric continuing education credits to maintain their licensure or to practice as Medicaid providers or medical directors of nursing homes

The report also argues that it would be valuable for geriatricians to broaden their expertise to include educational and leadership skills. These individuals could then serve as educators in multiple disciplines, although this would require changes inside and outside academic medicine.

To view the report's abstract, click here.