Magnolia Regional Medical Center Home Health Agency will celebrate National Home Care Month during the month of November, as well as Home Care Aide Week on
November 10 to 16. These critical workers play a central role in their
patients’ lives, and the National Association of Home Care & Hospice (NAHC) recognizes their efforts with this year’s theme:
“Home is the Center of Health Care.”
In
coming years, home care and hospice are poised to play a central role in the
delivery of healthcare throughout the country. A wide range of forces is
joining to push care away from nursing homes and drive it toward home and
community-based care. Based on demography and dollars, experts agree that the
destiny of health care lies in the home.
There is
growing demand for home care, yet the Medicare home health benefit has been cut
by $77 billion over 10 years. The cumulative effect of these disproportionate
cuts has been to weaken what was once a $17 billion industry by pushing
thousands of providers to the point of bankruptcy. The cuts have an even more serious
impact on patients by limiting their access to the care they need at home.
There
will be even more patients who need home care as the 78 million baby boomers
continue to age. The first of the boomers turned 65 last year and the rest will
reach their golden years over the next two decades. As they do, health care
dollars will grow even scarcer, especially if Medicare provides the boomers
with costly institutional care.
But
there is a better way. Home care is not just the preferred choice for most
patients; it’s also the best bang for our health care dollars. It costs
Medicare nearly $2,000 per day for a typical hospital stay and $559 per day for
a typical nursing home stay. Meanwhile, home care costs just $44 a day on
average. And home care, combined with technology, helps the many U.S. seniors
who live at home to stay independent, enrich their lives, and keep in touch
with those they love.
Home
care aides also play a central role by joining in patients’ lives, whether this
involves running errands, going with them to the doctor, or assisting them with
medical conditions. Aides are there to provide seniors with company and
conversation, and many aides are more than caregivers for their patients. They
are often friends who give warmth and comfort to the aged and ill.
NAHC
looks to the future in its theme, “Home is the Center of Health Care,” the
product of a brainstorming session at the NAHC Strategic Planning Congress in
February 2013. The session brought together members of NAHC’s board of
directors and the heads of its Forum of State Associations, along with key
leaders from the home care and hospice industry. They exchanged their thoughts
under the leadership of Dr. Lance Secretan, management expert, author, editor and
former corporate CEO. Their joint expression of home care’s goals gained
approval from NAHC’s board of directors in June.
For more
information on the National Association for Home Care & Hospice - National
Home Care & Hospice Month and Home Care Aide Week (November 10-16, 2013),
visit www.nahc.org.
For more information:
Karen Weido
870-235-3212
kweido@magnoliarmc.org
