The Danger of Hospitals for Someone with Alzheimer’

A study for the Annals of Internal Medicine highlights the challenges of hospitalizing someone with Alzheimer’s disease when they need medical care for another, treatable condition. Disorientation is common for someone with moderate to advanced Alzheimer’s. Cognitive impairment can make it difficult for someone to communicate basic things like when they feel pain, need to go to the bathroom or are hungry. Some people with dementia experience paranoia and hallucinations. At Bridges By EPOCH our staff is trained to handle these situations when they arise. But that’s often not the case in hospitals, where patients with Alzheimer’s are already dealing with a strange environment. For the study, researchers in Boston reviewed hospital records of 771 Alzheimer’s patients. They found that 25% of those people developed delirium while they were hospitalized. Delirium is a severe condition that can be triggered by certain medications, an infection or an unfamiliar medical procedure. With delirium, researchers found an increased risk of further mental decline during the year after the hospital stay, the need for institutionalization, and even death. Study authors say physicians and hospital staff need to be educated about the risks of delirium. They recommend that physicians do their best to keep someone with Alzheimer’s out of the hospital, or if that’s not an option, to work with hospital staff to help limit the disorientation and delirium that can occur. This means visiting the hospital whenever possible, talking with staff and carefully monitoring medicines that are administered and procedures that are performed. In response to this study, a reporter in Las Vegas wrote about what happened when his 88-year-old mother was hospitalized for pneumonia. She had advanced dementia and the move from an assisted living facility to the hospital left her extremely agitated. He said hospital staff tried to use sleeping medications and other narcotics to calm her down, but they actually had the opposite effect. The study, and this personal account, both underscore the need for more training of hospital staff. Since moving to Hingham to direct Bridges By EPOCH, I have been working hard to connect with healthcare and medical professionals in the area. As a certified Alzheimer’s trainer, I will continue to advocate for our residents and anyone with Alzheimer’s whenever I am out in the community. If you have a loved one who is going to be hospitalized and you need advice, feel free to call me at (781)-749-7114. Read about the Annals of Internal Medicine study