New Law Eases Caregiver Burden
Diana Matsushima cares for both her husband and sister-in-law full time, giving them their medications and driving them to their doctor appointments.
But when either ends up hospitalized, Matsushima said her role as their primary caregiver is often overlooked. She isn’t always included in the discussions at the hospital, and she sometimes leaves confused about how to best care for them when she gets home. When they are discharged, she said the nurses hand her a stack of papers without much — if any — explanation.
“They print out these cryptic notes,” Matsushima said. “My background is health education and I don’t know what these things mean to me and my family.”
Beginning this month, family caregivers like Matsushima could have a much different experience. A new California law, SB 675, requires hospital staffers to involve a family caregiver during the hospitalization and discharge process, which supporters say will improve patients’ overall health and reduce their chances of readmission.
The law, sponsored by state Sen. Carol Liu (D-La Cañada Flintridge), mandates that hospitals give patients an opportunity to identify a caregiver, notify that caregiver when the patient is to be discharged, and provide information and instruction on the patient’s needs and medications following the hospitalization.
How hospitals communicate with caregivers is expected to become more important as the population ages and the number of unpaid family caregivers continues to increase. An estimated 40 million Americans have cared for a relative in the past year, according to a 2015 study by the National Alliance for Caregiving and AARP.
Elaine Ryan, AARP’s vice president of state advocacy and strategy, said the legislation is designed to improve caregivers’ competency and give them peace of mind.
“A piece of paper can’t really educate people how to fill a syringe or clean a PICC line,” Ryan said, referring to a catheter inserted into a vein in a patient’s arm. The laws “make sure that family caregivers have all the information they need to safely care for their loved one at home.”
Matsushima said she has struggled to get that sort of information since 2009, when her husband had a stroke and she became a caregiver. During one hospital visit, she had to demand that nurses instruct her how to remove her husband’s catheter.
Matsushima said she feels “fed up with hospitals” and hopes the new law will make things better for her and other caregivers.
Currently, hospital staff members often make incorrect assumptions about who the caregivers are or how much they know, said Donna Benton, associate research professor of gerontology at the University of Southern California. They send people home without knowing whether food is in the house or someone to get patients’ medication or bring them to a follow-up appointment.
“This is a very important bill,” said Benton, co-director of the Los Angeles Caregiver Resource Center. “This really puts the pressure on the hospital to actually identify the caregiver and try to meet with them according to their schedule.”
Kaiser Health News is an editorially independent program of the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonprofit, nonpartisan health policy research and communication organization not affiliated with Kaiser Permanente.
