For centuries, all medical-related services such as providing cares, cures, and treatments are all common sources of primary care practice. Primary care practices consist of family physicians, general practitioners, general pediatricians, and all other fields related to healthcare. The purpose of a primary care practice establishment is to provide patient with access to healthcare, a treatment for an illness or injury, and continuously providing the services until the patient is fully recover. Once a patient is well, primary care is not necessary. Nevertheless, the focus will be shifted onto long term care as elder population in US continues to increase over time, with the ratio of elderly vs. mortality rate increasing. Long-term care means providing hands-on care such as showering, eating, emotional support and many others assisting for chronic illness and disabilities. The purpose of this is to provide assist elders with high quality of care in he or she remaining time left. Nonetheless, long-term care faces its challenges; low wages for its workers, occasionally difficult working conditions, and a heavy workload. The effects of these challenges is directly linked to the shortage of providers working in long-term elderly care. This point of this paper is to illustrate the purpose of long-term care, its’ duties and functions, as well as addressing the challenges of this branch of healthcare in America. Primary care has existed since the beginning of time in order
Long-term care assists individuals who cannot adequately perform their routine activities of daily living. These activities include dressing, bathing, walking, meal preparation, and taking medications ( Batnitzk,A.,Hayes,D.,& Vinall,P.E. 2014,(c. 5.1). These services are typically for clients over the age of 65 years old and is used to promote independence and security for those who cannot take care of their needs due to illness or debility (c.6.1). The type of provider will depend on the type of care a client needs. For instance, some elderly people that need help with food preparations or everyday activities will request to stay at home and have a family member take care of them. This is one way that long-term care is rendered but is unpaid. Another way is through nursing facilities, skilled nursing facilities and assisted living that will handle more complex or full-time
Long-term care can be defined as a broad set of paid and unpaid services for people who are mentally or physically disabled, or whose chronic illness places them in need of medical or personal assistance for long periods of time. “It is estimated that there are more than twelve million Americans of all ages whose mix of serious disability and chronic illness places them at the high risk for functional decline, hospitalization, or nursing home placement.” (Benjamin) Several different populations require long-term care services, and the needs of these populations vary. In addition to the elderly, many of the long-term care users are younger persons with physical disabilities; persons with developmental disabilities; and persons with chronic
The Continuum of Care is the variety of health care services provided to numerous individuals who are in need of it. All the various Long Term Care providers work as a unit, helping an individual handle their disability with various health care amenities accessible. The Continuum of Care, as stated in Long Term Care: Managing Across the Continuum (2010), is “comprehensive, integrated, and client-oriented”. All the services offered should be client-based and cater to the client’s needs and suitable care. The client’s should be able to obtain services when it is needed from the provider, making it comprehensive. All the different Long Term Care providers should be interconnected between one another, because their goal is all the same. Their goal is to care for the client’s needs. The Continuum of Care consists of: nursing facilities, sub acute care, assisted living, residential care, elderly housing, and a variety of community-based services (Pratt, 2010). All these different providers work together to care for the individuals within the health care industry, creating the continuum and making it integrated. The continuum has many positive attributes, along with many barriers. The range of barriers are: poor transitions from Long Term Care setting to setting for the clients, the continuum is reimbursement-driven, it is fragmented and uncoordinated, it is under staffed with medical professionals, and there are major language and literacy problems.
For a long period of time, hospitals have basically been established as nonprofit and for-profit facilities with several similarities and differences between these categories. Notably, these categories have minimal differences though it's difficult to predict their quality based on their structures. The healthcare field has also been characterized by several trends in the past three decades in attempts to improve the delivery of services and patient outcomes. In relation to the provision of long-term care, hospitals and nursing homes have different roles that enable them to achieve this objective. The hospital sector in the United States has experienced several changes that have contributed to its current state of long-term care policy.
The quality of long term care has become a topic for the elderly and their family. Some of the issues are cost, quality, and access of care. The expansion of the elderly population, is expected to affect significantly the provision of long-term care. The impact of care has been considered. Social choice will play in shaping the future of the long-term care system. The Federal Government and the expansion of the Affordable Care Act are part of this social decision. One of the major concerns is the cost of long term care. Most of the U.S. population have the benefits of using Medicare.
In a report posted in AARP titled “Leading Change, Advancing Health,” the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Institute of Medicine outlined ways that nurses are solving many challenges in health care and hold a key role in accessing health care for many patients and play a significant role in transforming the future of health care (AARP, 2012). The Nurse Practitioner is a Registered Nurse who have received their master’s degree or PhD in nursing and completed a course to a specialized medical field and is capable of providing patient care and writing prescriptions (AARP, 2012). With the boom in the aging population the nurse practitioner has a key role for adults over 50, the need for medical care will increase and the wait to see a doctor will also increase. The Nurse Practitioners Role in patient care will help provide continuity of care with chronic patients. In an article post on AARP website entitled “The Doctor Can’t See You Now-But the Nurse Can” states the importance of nurses in field of advance practice. In poor and underserved rural and urban areas, nurse practitioners represent the only health care available. Nurse practitioners play a vital role in the health of adults over 50 not
Long-Term Care is the retirement crisis that no one is talking about. There is an increasing demand for long-term care services because Americans are living longer with chronic health conditions. For Example, Veterans may live with family or alone and need services that their caregiver can no longer provide or may outlive their primary caregiver. Nursing home placement seems like the only option.
Due to the current aging population, this medical Practice intends to provide long-term needs for efficient patient care. Industry health experts advise that catering for long-term care needs is more profitable due to higher demands of medical and health services for the elderly and people with diseases (Borglum, 2014).
There has been an increasingly large amount of awareness placed on the governments role in prevention and standards for the control of health care and communicable diseases. In this growing effort are provisions applying to long-term health and stipulations for proper treatment and care. Gradually, a shift from local community efforts to care for the elder has transferred to a prominent government role. Several committees have been created to assist with the implementation and over view of care and acts to instigate change. Amongst the major changes that have been set in place effecting long-term care, was the passage of the Social Security Act of 1935 and Medicaid insurance.
Acute Long Term Care Skilled facilities are no longer for the elderly age 65 and older. These facilities are housing individuals with more complex medical conditions that require more care. The need for healthcare providers in long term care settings are in great demand.
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
Health care is a fascinating industry. So many types of care are included within the industry. Health care can be very broad or very specific. Health care is also comprised of different types of health care. One specific sector is long-term health care. Long-term care plays a huge role in the health care continuum. This paper will define long-term care and a continuum as well as discuss the services provided and how these services fit in the continuum of care, the resources that go along with long-term care and how it contributes to overall health care resources, and how long-term care services
This paper will review the many aspects of long-term care problems and many challenges there are within Long-Term care. We will look at rising costs within long-Term Care, patient abuse, will look at the quality of life, shortages of nurses and demand that the elderly are putting on the medical field. The type of care that Long-Term Care had been giving to its patients and the changes within Long-Term Care.
Without the long-term healthcare industry, we as a nation would struggle to exist and remain healthy. Due to the growing number of baby boomers, long-term health care is essential so that they are being taken care of. When deciding on the correct health care system, individuals have many factors to consider. Like anything else, there are many threats and disadvantages to becoming a part of long-term healthcare. To most people, the negatives outweigh the positives sometimes when people are put into the nursing home the healthcare professionals many times are not professionals and families worry that their loved ones are not receiving proper care or treatment. Most patients would prefer to use the services of a state hospital compared to a private
As America ages, it is increasingly important that our younger generations are prepared to support those who once supported us. The elderly make up a large part of our population and they need someone that has a special understanding of how to meet their needs. As much as we need geriatricians, there are very few of them. This is becoming a concern for many elderly individuals that feel it is necessary to be treated by one. Based on this article, it appears that most elderly individuals feel more comfortable seeing a geriatrician, than a family doctor. They seem to love the compassion and quality of care that they receive.