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Primary Submission Category: Aging
Caregivers are everywhere: systematic identification of caregivers during outpatient care
Authors: Jennifer Makelarski, Emily Abramsohn, Soo Borson, Soma Chaudhury, Missie Johnson, Elbert S. Huang, Carolyn Lenhart, Eva S. Ren, Katherine Thompson, Stacy Tessler Lindau,
Presenting Author: Jennifer Makelarski*
One in every four U.S adults is a caregiver to someone with a medical condition or disability. Policymakers, practitioners, public health advocates and caregivers are calling for interventions to support caregivers. Healthcare encounters are opportune for delivery of these interventions. However, because caregiver status is rarely systematically assessed, caregivers are largely invisible to clinicians. We established feasibility and acceptability of implementing a validated caregiver screener into outpatient intake processes.
Using SmartData elements in the electronic medical record (EMR), two validated caregiver screening questions were embedded into the patient intake workflow and history at a large, urban academic medical center. Adult ambulatory patients scheduled for an outpatient appointment at 24 clinics were prompted to complete the caregiver screening as part of the digital intake process via the patient portal.
From 7/21/25 – 1/31/26, 9,893 unique patients were presented with the caregiver screening items during the digital outpatient appointment intake process; 99% answered the first question assessing caregiver status and 8% identified as a caregiver. Nearly all caregivers (99%) answered the second item identifying the main health condition of the care recipient. The most common care recipient conditions were Alzheimer’s disease, dementia or other cognitive impairment disorder (18%) followed by old age/infirmity/frailty (17%) and cancer (10%). Of note, 16% of respondents selected “other.” No clinician or patient complaints regarding the screening process were registered.
EMR integration of validated caregiver screening questions into adult outpatient care is feasible and acceptable. Ubiquitous digital clinical intake workflows can be used to rapidly and systematically identify caregivers during outpatient care and drive meaningful change among the aging U.S. population.