First there was the slow food movement, now there is a push for slow medicine.

“Grounded in research at the Dartmouth Medical School, slow medicine encourages physicians to put on the brakes when considering care that may have high risks and limited rewards for the elderly, and it educates patients and families how to push back against emergency room trips and hospitalizations designed for those with treatable illnesses, not the inevitable erosion of advanced age.”

Slow medicine helps older adults make decisions for themselves when it comes to treatment. According to the article quoted above, this mission is much more easily accomplished when a person lives in a retirement community. Healthcare communities, like Kendal at Hanover, develop a relationship with the patient that includes finding out their wishes for their end of life care. The example below demonstrates how slow medicine works.

…at Kendal — which offers a continuum of care, from independent living apartments to a nursing home — death and dying is central to the conversation from Day 1.

So it was natural for Ms. Gieg to stay in touch with Joanne Sandberg-Cook, a nurse practitioner there, during her husband’s out-of-town consultation.

“I think that it is imperative that none of this be rushed!” Ms. Sandberg-Cook wrote in an e-mail message to Ms. Gieg. The doctor the Giegs had chosen, the nurse explained, “tends to be a ‘do-it-now’ kind of guy.” But the Giegs’ circumstances “demand the time to think about all the what-ifs.”

Ms. Sandberg-Cook asked whether Mr. Gieg would want treatment if he was found to have cancer. If not, why go through a biopsy, which might further weaken his voice? Or risk anesthesia, which could accelerate her husband’s dementia?

“Those are the very questions on my mind, too,” Ms. Gieg replied. The Giegs took their time, opted for no further tests or treatment, and Charley came back to the retirement community to die.

Conversely, many people who rely on home and community based health care or use no services at all, may not have the luxury to use the slow medicine movement. They are much more likely to call 911 when having a medical emergency which makes it more difficult for them to use less invasive procedures.

With so many life extending medicines and procedures, our culture can become fixated on living as long as possible without looking at the quality of life of the individual and their wishes. How does your organization balance the wants of the individual with potentially conflicting wants of family members? Does your organization subscribe to the slow medicine movement?