Mealtime Partners Address the Issue of Dehydration in Individuals with Disabilities

Mealtime Partners Inc. is an organization that aims to provide individuals with a physical disability the opportunity to eat and drink independently. Mealtime Partners offers a broad range of drinking systems, some of which provide hands free drinking and can be mounted to a wheelchair or bed. Others address the special swallowing needs of our clients including drinking thickened liquids or needing a controlled amount of liquid for each swallow. In their January 2011 Independent Eating and Drinking Newsletter, Mealtime Partners addresses the widespread issue of dehydration, which is a common ailment of individuals who lack the physical ability to adequately feed and hydrate themselves. The following is an excerpt from the January newsletter.

The High Cost of Dehydration

Medical treatment for rehydration is estimated to have exceeded $1 billion in the U.S. in 1999 for elderly patients, alone. If these costs are projected to 2010 it is an enormous medical expense that could be significantly reduced with preventative treatment.

Because medical costs are skyrocketing there is a movement towards providing preventative medical treatment to reduce overall medical cost in the United States. Many health conditions, if treated appropriately on a regular basis, can be managed without hospitalization or the need for emergency treatment, but if neglected can become life threatening. Some examples of these are diabetes, high blood pressure, and some heart conditions. However, something as simple as adequate hydration is often overlooked as a significant health issue that is essential for ongoing good health. When hydration is neglected and someone becomes dehydrated, many negative health issues can occur.

Dehydration is an ongoing problem for many people, especially those with disabilities. It is responsible for health problems such as urinary tract infections, kidney problems, skin tissue deterioration, and headaches. All of these conditions require medical treatment that, in some cases, can be protracted, require hospitalization, and thus be very expensive.

In most cases, dehydration is preventable! However, it takes a vigilant caregiver to offer a drink on a regular schedule to keep someone adequately hydrated. This is a difficult task when someone is undertaking many care-giving responsibilities. Often, what happens is the person is offered a large drink, infrequently. This introduces an element of risk to the health of the person. When drinking a large quantity of liquid at a time, the person drinking takes a sizeable volume of liquid into their mouth at one time, and swallows repeatedly to clear all of the liquid from their mouth. With each swallow, within the sequence of swallows, the risk of choking or aspiration increases. Therefore, because of the added risk, this is a poor method of avoiding dehydration.

For most people a drinking system can be made available to them even if they are unable to hold or lift a cup. However, regardless of this easy solution to avoiding dehydration, Medicare, Medicaid and private health care insurance providers consider all drinking systems as “aids for daily living” and do not cover their cost. However, they do cover the cost of an emergency room visit and/or hospital stay that was brought about by dehydration. According to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), about one in  ten of the nearly 40 million hospitalizations in 2008 were potentially avoidable. Dehydration was among the conditions for which hospitalization was avoidable with the appropriate outpatient care.

Additionally, according to the National Pressure Ulcer Long-Term Care Study (NPULS), dehydration was associated with a 42% increase in risk of developing pressure ulcers in nursing home residents. The estimated annual cost for treating pressure, or decubidus, ulcers in the United States is $1.3 billion.

Would it not be wiser for Medicare, Medicaid and private insurance providers to fund drinking systems for those clients who are unable to drink independently? It certainly appears to be one inexpensive approach for reducing overall medical expenses in the United States.

For more information on Mealtime Partners drinking systems, click here or call 800-996-8607

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