Fundamentally, long term care includes the range of social and medical service alternatives available to meet the compensational needs for those who can hardly function autonomously. This segment of healthcare has significantly developed over the past three decades. Consequently, this growth has caused some major challenges in the sector. According to Smith & Feng (2010), several trends are reflected in the various variations that have occurred in the long term care in the US. These include affluence, urbanization of the population, and the growing size that demands such services. Additionally, other trends include the changes in social attitudes and medicine about such care, and the unintentional repercussions of the accrued struggles to restructure them. This article discusses the challenges that affect the long term continuum and their impacts on various elements, including staffing, regulation, and financing.
Stakeholders Interested
This article will be relevant to several stakeholders. Nurse homes would be interested in understanding the problems they face since this paper will assess generalized issues facing the industry. They can also benefit from reviewing the recommendations. Moreover, state survey agencies and policymakers are stakeholders in this article as they would be interested in acknowledging the issues raised. They can also evaluate whether the recommendations included can work in an ideal world. Furthermore, medical directors in nursing would use the suggestions to improve the quality of their long term care services. Academicians would want to expand on the provisions of the article. Importantly, consumers can learn about the current issues affecting the long term care system and how they affect them.
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Challenges
Currently, the long term care continuum faces various challenges. First, it encounters an increased number of individuals that require the services has increased significantly. This is because of the increased life expectancy in the country, high divorce rates, reduced the size of family units, and higher costs are incurred if a family member provides the services (Rowles & Teaster, 2016). Second, a reduction in the overall quality of healthcare. Primarily, an increase in inequalities in the ability to acquire quality care is influenced by an individual’s income (Smith & Feng, 2010). Third, the diversification of long term care in terms of facilities and offerings has significantly affected the system. It results in the danger of fragmenting care, its duplication, and its ability to push patients into narrower groups of services.
Impacts
Challenges in the long term care system have significant effects. First, an increased number of patients causes staff shortages since most facilities are not equipped with many personnel. Subsequently, this may affect the quality of services provided. Second, lack of federal finances causes many low-income households to face quality care problems, reduced access to care, and policy issues. Majorly, financial pressures cause care providers and purchasers to worsen the quality offered (Smith & Feng, 2010). Additionally, it creates an economic slowdown since it reduces the ability of people to pay for those services. Thirdly, the reduction in quality forces policymakers to develop new regulations that providers and facilities have to follow to improve on the services they provide.
Recommendations
Various recommendations can be developed to mitigate the challenges faced in the long term care system. First, nurses and other healthcare professionals should be offered more competitive salaries, prospects to further their education, and improving their working conditions. Moreover, facilities should increase their staff by hiring new people. Second, to address the declining quality of long term system, custodian and rehabilitative care practices should be promoted to help the elderly. Additionally, the safety net should be evaluated as it varies among states. Third, it is vital to enhance a smooth transition from one long term care to another through financial coverages and physical provisions. Policymakers should ensure that incentives, including high payments, do not cause splits in the continuum of healthcare.
References
Rowles, G. D., & Teaster, P. B. (2016). The long-term care continuum in an aging society.
Smith, D. B., & Feng, Z. (2010). The Accumulated Challenges of Long-Term Care. Health Affairs, 29(1), 29-34. https://doi.org/10.1377/hlthaff.2009.0507
