Transitions are never easy, and the desire to age in place or move in with one’s children has become an increasing trend. In the case of Ms. Viola Livingston, the stress accompanying her return home from the hospital was eased by a local home
senior home health care
Assisted Living Choices May Impact Nursing Home Care
Assisted living options have expanded in recent years. These options may be reshaping the type of patients that are found in nursing home. The new assisted living options that are being offered by Medicaid services throughout the country may be taking patients that require less care out of the nursing home environment. This change has led to an increase of the number of patients that require more care being found in nursing homes.
The assisted living capacity has increased by 10% nationwide and there has been a 1.4 % decline in nursing home residencies. Many believe that the decline in nursing home residencies has been caused by the proliferation of the assisted living option. (more…)
Nurse Practitioners May Ease the Physician Shortage in the Coming Years
The July issue of Medical Care reports that the number of nurse practitioners in the U.S. will almost double by the year 2025. A nurse practitioner receives post graduate training through a Master’s or PHD program after receiving a nursing license. The number of physician’s assistants is also increasing and both groups are expected to ease some of the burden anticipated on the health care system in the future.
According to recent statistics, the aging rate of the American population may contribute (more…)
PACE Program offers an Alternative to Nursing Home Care
With the recent Supreme Court decision allowing the continuation of The Affordable Health Care Act there are other government programs under examination to see if their budget should be cut. The effectiveness of these programs will hopefully be the deciding factor in whether they are kept or not.
CBS News recently looked at one program that has been successful and does reduce costs as it allows older Americans to continue to live at home. (more…)
Global Warming and Seniors
Recently a study was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that looked at the possible effect that global warming has had on the senior population. The researchers from Harvard and the University of Michigan looked at Medicare data of seniors that suffer from a variety of chronic diseases from 1985 through 2006. Conditions like Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), congestive heart failure, myocardial infarction and diabetes were of particular interest to researchers.
They concluded (more…)
The Aging of America Continues
The Census Bureau has analyzed the data and it appears that North America will have more people aged 65 and over than aged 15 and under by 2050. The medical advances that have been made over the years are certainly a large contributing factor in this trend.
An increase in the senior population in the U.S. means there will be a continuing need for family members to offer some form of caregiving. A person new to this job should be careful to avoid the pitfalls that they will encounter. (more…)
Continuing Evaluation on the Cognitive Effects of Diabetes
The Archives of Neurology has published another study that looks at the effects that diabetes can have on cognitive function for older adults. The research looked at the scores on mental tests and compared the cognitive function of those who had diabetes mellitus with other subjects that did not.
The subjects were also given blood tests to determine if their glucose levels were being properly controlled. The test scores of individuals with poorly controlled glucose levels were looked at to determine if this fact alone may contribute (more…)
Pre-existing Conditions Affect Long Term Care Insurance Availability – Part One
The term pre-existing condition has been used a lot the past few years as it is one of the things that has affected Americans when trying to purchase health insurance. When you change carriers a new carrier may not pay for continued treatment or a new treatment for the same ailment for a certain amount of time.
As we discussed earlier a Long Term Care Policy may not be for everyone. Companies may not make a long term care policy available to a person who has had heart surgery, cataract surgery or who requires a walker or cane during their activities of daily living. (more…)
Recent Study finds Palliative Care Interventions Improves Quality of Life
A recent study has found that those diagnosed with metastatic cancer may benefit from discussions on the benefits of hospice, living wills and other issues. The patients that had these discussions with an Advanced Registered Nurse Practitioner showed so much better results in emotional and mental tests than those who did not.
Palliative Care is described as specialized medical care to improve the quality of life for those who are suffering from serious or terminal illnesses. The researchers in this study wanted to evaluate (more…)
Medicare Recipients and Caregivers: The New Detectives
The Medicare monthly benefits statement can contain codes describing services that may or may not read like something you received from your doctor. Next year this should all change though as the language on the Medicare statement is to be more user friendly.
Those interested can actually get this more easily understood information right now at the Medicare website. New York Times columnist for health care Susan Jaffe reports (more…)
New Report on Medicare and Health Services – Part Two
According to the report “Health Care Change: The Time is Now” the current health care system’s ability to handle preventive care goals and reduce costs has some very definable flaws. Patients are not scheduling visits to discuss preventive care and physicians are not actively making patients aware of all that Medicare has to offer.
According to the report another large part of the soaring health care costs involves chronic illnesses that require consistent care. Up to 70% of all Medicare recipients suffer from some type of chronic condition – (more…)