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.
