...Abstract This paper will explore the long term care system in the United States focusing on the elderly. Understanding aging and the effects it shall have on the long term care industry is important for our society, as the numbers of the elderly are increasing. This paper shall also identify problems in the current long term care system that can cause risk to the elderly such as financial burdens and inadequate care. It will address the long term care professions and job opportunities available as well as give information needed for long term planning. Changes and needs to the long term care delivery systems will be addressed. In conclusion this paper will educate on the elderly needs for long term care and the best way to plan for their future. Long Term Care Systems in the United States When one contemplates the long term care system in the United States, the first thing one must do is understand the importance of aging. In the not so distant past, it was not uncommon for infants to die due to poor nutrition and infectious diseases, nor was the life span as high as it is today. The increasing number of elderly in our society, due to the “baby boomers and longer life spans,” and the changing patterns of activity among them, have led to new assumptions on how their needs and wishes govern the organization of long term health care. When thinking about long term care we must evaluate our rate of growth of the elderly. Statistics show that the population of 80 years or older...
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...The long term care system has many weaknesses that could be evaluated and turned into strengths, for example, the way in which health care providers are compensated. The current long-term care system does not provide incentives for improving the quality, value, and efficiency of care delivered to the consumer. In order for the long-term care system to change the current reimbursement-driven system, it needs to concentrate on the requirements of the individual long-term care consumer instead of the payment availability. The long-term care systems payment availability has conflicting issues that gauge anywhere from the source of third-party reimbursement, to which conditions determine the length of time spent on a particular type or level of the facility. These factors have become increasing important since the beginning of managed care, as restrictions on the kind and amount of care received, relates to their cost. Another reimbursement weakness for the long term care system is found within the distribution of services as the source of coverage, the geographic, and political boundaries can have limitations on the availability of professional staff. Payers, providers,...
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...Strategies for Evaluating Electronic Medical Records System Keisha Williams-Young HCS/587 May 02, 2011 In the past few years, many organizations have been making technological advances when it comes to medical records. By implementing Electronic Medical Records system to the Long-Term Care Home Facility, managers will be taking a huge leap into the future. Of course, when organizations decide to make an over-haul change of this magnitude, managers need to make sure they have planned strategies for measuring the various outcomes. Now that the implementation of Electronic Medical Records system has been implemented at the Long-Term Care Facility, management needs to focus on the strategies for determining just how effective was the change to the EMR system. The managers must also be able to analyze possible future outcomes of the implementation as well as looked at how they plan to measure the quality and satisfaction outcomes of the implemented change plan. Change Effectiveness Now that Electronic Medical Records system has been implemented at the Long-Term Care Facility, managers will now have to determine how effective the change to the EMR system was. According to Spector (2010), effectiveness is determined by the degree to which employee behavior is adaptive; moving people in a direction that is in the long-term best interests of employees and the organization. By watching, talking, and gathering surveys from employees...
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...signed in to law the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. The Affordable Care Act alters the insurance market in the United States, increases revenues from a variety of new taxes, expands public insurance and it declines private insurance coverage, mandates that residents have health insurance, decreases and reorganizes spending under the nation’s largest health insurance plan which is Medicare. It has been said that if the Affordable Care Act is implemented to its full power that it can have a lead in different health choices for the United States in the future. I begin by providing a broad outline of the Affordable Care Act’s key features to help guide the discussion of the bill’s projected effects. History of the Affordable Health Care Act The Affordable Care Act is a long, complex piece of legislation that attempts to reform the healthcare system by providing more Americans with affordable quality health insurance and by curbing the growth in healthcare spending in the U.S.. Reforms include new benefits, rights and protections, rules for insurance companies, taxes, tax breaks, funding, spending, the creation of committees, education, new job creation and more. Democrats and Republicans have been working to create laws that reform the American health care system for decades. Almost every President over the last century has proposed healthcare reform unsuccessfully. The Affordable Care Act, modeled after health care reform in Massachusetts, was the first successful...
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...Continuum of Care- Long-term Care Long-term care has and is continuing to become an important part of the continuum of care. Years ago Long-term care (LTC) was considered only to be for the elderly, but as time passes it is for anybody and everybody who needs it. Barton (2006) stated, “Regardless of the length of time (i.e., from weeks to years), long-term care is an array of services provided in a range of settings to individuals who have lost some capacity for independence due to injury, chronic illness, or condition” (p. 367). According to Barton (2006), it states that the services long-term care provides help the consumer with basic needs and shows the individuals how to do daily living activities, along with therapy and being able to manage their conditions. Today long-term care is serving consumers of all ages in home, community, and institutional settings (Barton, 2006). Long-term care has contributed to the continuum of care tremendously because it is offering an array of services for consumers in different places and not just focusing on one specific population. In the last few years long-term care has become more of a need for more than 12million people in the United States, and out of these 12 million people, five million of them are nearly disabled (Barton, 2006). Barton (2006) stated, “a significant proportion of people needing long-term care-nearly half –is younger than 65: 40 percent are working age adults and about 3 percent are children younger than age 18”...
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...The Canadian Health Care system has been regarded as one of the best publicly funded health care programs in the world, to conduct a fair and unbiased comparison of the Canadian and American health care systems one should use similar measuring techniques. Comparing our Health Care system to the United States’ is only going to give us a false sense of satisfaction. This will hinder our progress towards reaching a system that would facilitate the needs of every citizen while taking their opinions and complaints into consideration. A Canadian Health Care system created by the people and for the people. The major differences between the Canadian and the American health care systems are that the Canadian health is a publicly-funded single-pay system which covers costs deemed medically necessary for every citizen/resident regardless of their ability to pay. While the American health care is a multi-payer system based on the patient’s finances. I argue That Canadian Health Care system is better than the American Health Care system. In the Canadian system the citizens will pay far less than they would ever pay if they were being treated for any sickness or receiving any medical services in the United States. It is clear that the Canadian health system is better than the American counterpart as the reported Life expectancy is higher in Canada by more than 2 years, 82.4 years for women and 77.4 years for men when compared to the American life expectancy, 80.1 years for women and 74.8 years...
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...The long term care system has evolved over a period of time before it became what is now. Up until recently, most families took care of their own members and there was no demand for institutions to provide service for them. In today’s society the system is composed of many different levels of care from skilled nursing facilities, and assisted living facilities to home healthcare agencies, and adult day care centers. There are many different strengths and weaknesses, but regardless of the weaknesses long term care is very important to the lives of many Americans. Some weaknesses that have the ability to improve into strengths include poor public image, fragmentation, and acute system overshadowing. Most have acquired the long-term care facilities reputation as being “a place someone goes to die” or “a place to get rid of someone”. One reason why this occurs because most facilities do not have the qualified staff that it needs to provide quality of care to its patients. These facilities need to be ran properly so that families can know that they are leaving there loved ones in good hands. The appearance of the majority of nursing...
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...Long-Term Care Long-term care is vital in the United States health care system. As the population ages, more people will need assistance to recover from illness or injury, and others will need end of life care to ease their passing. People who use long-term care are all ages. From young to old, people can receive it if they cannot care for themselves because of a condition, an illness, or an injury that requires assistance for a period of 90 days or more. The concern people face when looking at long-term care is the funding. Medicaid will likely be drained of funds long before the country’s aging population is past its peak and while there are some options of insurance coverage, not everyone may afford them. There has been development since the 1980s of government programs to assist those needing long-term care in locating the services that fit their needs best. A couple of centers created are the Administration on Aging (AOA), the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), and the Aging and Disability Resource Centers (ADRC). The purpose of these centers is to help people of all ages, disabilities, and income levels to more easily access long-term services and support and transition among various sites of care, make more efficient use of care options, and maximize available services (O'Shaughnessy, 2011). These organizations help so that where ever people enter the system, they find direction to what services best meet their needs. These organizations are state run...
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...Running head: CONTINUUM OF CARE PAPER Continuum of Care Paper Patricia Alexander University of Phoenix Health Care Delivery in the U.S. 310 Michelle Crakes May 25, 2009 Continuum of Care Paper Long-Term Care Before we can discuss the roles of long-term care, we must define the meaning of long-term care. The purpose of this paper is to describe in detail the role long-term care plays in providing services and how long-term care contributes or lacks contribution to the overall management of health care resources. In addition to the above-mentioned topics, the transitioning of patients from one level of care to another level of care in the health care continuum will be discussed. What is Long-Term Care? What is long-term care? Long-term care is a variety of services that includes medical and non-medical care to people who have a chronic illness or disability. Long-term care helps meet health or personal needs. Most long-term care is to assist people with support services such as activities of daily living like dressing, bathing, and using the bathroom. Long-term care can be provided at home, in the community, in assisted living or in nursing homes. It is important to remember that you may need long-term care at any age according to (Medicare, 2009). Description of Services The purpose of long-term is to provide the most appropriate service in the least restrictive setting possible. Long-term care programs offer institutional services...
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...Understanding Continuum of Care Services Damita Boone HCA/210 August 3, 2012 Stacy Hull Vance • What is long-term care? Provide an example. Long-term care is a variety of services that includes medical and non-medical care to people who have a chronic illness or disability. Long-term care helps meet health or personal needs. Most long-term care is to assist people with support services such as activities of daily living like dressing, bathing, eating, and using the bathroom. Long-term care can be provided at home, in the community, in assisted living or in nursing homes. Long-term care can be given at any age depending on the situation or disability. The type of long-term care an individual may receive depends on their current situation but all situations are subject to change. For example, my current patient had no use of her arms so she needed 24hour care. I had to feed, dress, bathe, groom, and even drive her to the places she needed to go. Unless her current condition changes, she will always need assistance. I was doing private duty so I took care of her in her home. The shifts were split between two other people so our performance for her was at good standards. • What is the continuum of care services in the United States? The continuum of care services is a concept involving an integrated system of care that guides and tracks a patient over time through...
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...1-Given the increasing longevity of Americans and the costs of providing long-term care, anticipation of the costs should be a major element of every family’s financial planning. Current information suggests however, that very few families or individuals give this consideration. What factors might impede this advance planning? What measures might be effective in raising awareness among the Americans about this important matter? Age, diagnosis, and ability to perform personal self-care and the sites of care delivery vary widely. Also, the unrelenting progression of time is the one constant that expresses the diverse range of life's possibilities. According to Calmus (2013), Long-term care in the United States is in crisis. The current system is not meeting the needs of the frail elderly and disabled populations. As the 77 million baby boomers enter retirement, the Long-term care crisis will likely grow, both because of the sheer number of the baby boomers and because of medical advances that have increased longevity. Regrettably, few have prepared to pay for their Long-term care, either through insurance or savings. Policymakers need to move swiftly to reform the current system to ensure that tomorrow’s retirees have access to high quality care without bankrupting future generations. According to the article "5 Big Reasons Why Americans Don't Save Their Money," Savings aren’t just important for buffering life’s emergencies; research shows that financial assets, more than income...
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...• • • • • • The Future Challenges Facing Health Care in the United States • Donna Kester • Dr. James Driscoll • HSA 500 • December 7, 2011 • The Future Challenges Facing Health Care in the United States Identify and describe at least three of the most difficult issues facing health care in the United States today. One of the most difficult challenges that our healthcare system faces is in long term health care policies such as Medicare and Medicaid. Medicare is the federal program for the elderly and disabled. It covers many of the costs associated with acute medical care but covers very few long term care services. Medicaid is a federal and state health program which covers long term care but only for those people who are poor or have become poor paying for medical care (Williams & Torrens, 2010). Although long term health care services are less of a priority compared to other health care services, problems in the current long term care system are due to the controversies and lack of responsibility of the state and federal governments. Even though we have seen tremendous growth in home-care services, nursing homes continue to dominate the service system. State and federal governments continue to struggle to manage costs of the different services they provide and continue to quarrel over their respective financial responsibilities. Another difficult challenge is life style diseases. The life style diseases...
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...Understanding Continuum of Care Services Long-term care is when an individual needs someone to help them with their physical and emotional needs for a long period of time. Patients need help with their everyday activities. Some examples of long-term care would be senior or nursing homes, assisted living and in-home nurses. In the United States, continuum of care is a concept involving an integrated system of care that guides and tracks patients over time through various services. It allows a patient to have their care managed effectively from basic care services, such as prescriptions to making appointments, to more advanced care services, such as hospital care, critical care or long-term care services. It creates a medical community where the doctors and ancillary staff, which are involved in a patient’s treatments, all communicate with one another regarding a patient’s health. Long-term health care is one of the greatest challenges facing the health care delivery system today. This is due to the aging population growing extremely fast. The first of the baby boomers generation is joining the already elderly in the retirement age and there are a lot more individuals from that generation to reach the retirement age as well. The resources used for long-term care are also extremely expensive. Long-term care costs the delivery system a huge amount of money. It requires many resources such as home care, assisted living, adult daycare, respite care, hospice care and nursing homes. http://www...
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...Understanding Long Term Care Long Term care is a range of services and support that patients may need as they age to meet there every day ADLs or Activities of Daily Living. Most long term care is not medical care it is care that is given to a patient that has had and acute or chronic illness. For examples if a patient gets in a car accident and becomes paralyzed from waist down they most likely will need assistance with bathing, dressing, toileting and eating those are examples of ADLs. What is Continuum of Care? Continuum of Care services in the U.S. is an integrated system of care that will guide and track a patient over time spanning all levels of intensity of care, providing a model to guide daily decisions about the patient’s healthcare delivery. Furthermore continuum of care is meant to guide post for a patient to have their overall care managed. For example a patient can receive assistance with basic care like setting up doctor’s appointments or more extensive care such as hospital care. What are the problems with Long Term? Long-term care is one of the greatest challenges facing the health care delivery system today because of the cost. With the rising cost of healthcare period in the U.S., long-term care services are more extensive due to the fact that many people are living longer this is causing a lot of work place shortages , quality of care is being jeopardize and also the financing is at stake. For example my grandmother had a long term life...
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...health care system is complex and fragmented. Navigating the system to achieve maximum health outcomes is challenging for most consumers. Two concepts designed to overcome barriers to quality health care are the continuum of care and continuity of care. The continuum of care refers to the variety of health care services across the life span. Continuity of care refers to provider and informational consistency within those services. Integrated delivery systems are health care delivery entities working together to promote continuity and coordination of care across the health care continuum. Continuum of Care The health care delivery components in the public and private sector health care systems provide services from preconception to death resulting in a lifetime continuum of health care services. Health services are available for every stage of life, health, and even death. Your texts organize the health services delivery system into primary, secondary, tertiary, long-term, and palliative care. Within that framework, health care delivery services can be categorized as ambulatory, acute, or long-term. Ambulatory care, such as visits to a physician's office, is defined as care that does not involve admission to an inpatient facility. Preventive care such as immunizations or screening, wellness exams, and other routine care are part of the ambulatory care domain. Medical and surgical procedures provided in outpatient facilities also are considered ambulatory care. Acute...
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