There are currently 50 million seniors of 65 and older in the United States, and this number is expected to reach 70 million by 2030. What does this mean for the future of home health care? With many seniors wanting to age in place instead of moving into assisted care or nursing homes, home health care resources are going to be a valuable commodity in the next few years.
Research has shown that one of the greatest challenges of health care in the United States is that seniors want to remain as independent as possible while receiving the appropriate care that they need. This includes care for serious chronic illnesses and other maladies of aging, which makes it an important time to use telemedicine or telehealth if it’s available to you.
Telehealth service providers offer the ability to communicate with health care providers over the Internet using chat, video link, or smartphone apps such as FaceTime. This allows treatment to be made based on your symptoms while you stay in your own home. Insurance companies and Medicare increasingly support these services beause of the convenience and the cost savings they entail.
Another industry challenge is recruiting and retaining an adequate number of qualified caregivers to meet the staffing demands of home health care. Currently there is a shortage in staffing in the home health care industry. A 2018 report from Paraprofessional Healthcare Institute estimates that 7.8 million direct-care positions will need to be filled by 2026. The Bureau of Labor Statistics anticipates that the direct care workforce will grow more than any single occupation in the country, bringing about the greatest number of new jobs in most of the country.
In light of these numbers, some organizations are looking for innovative ways to fulfill this need for more direct home health care workers. Some companies are using creative ways to find new recruits who might be interested in this career path, such as retired individuals and college students. Technology will also come into play here where location-based, mobile solutions will be more available to give home health care workers more control over their schedules and careers.
One way the home health care industry is looking forward is by embracing the advances in medical information technology. These medical IT solutions include electronic health records (EHRs), electronic prescription services, remote patient monitoring, and wearable medical devices. EHRs are one aspect of health care that is being outsourced to automate such tasks as observing, recording, and reporting. This allows the home care professionals to concentrate on what they do best: direct patient care.
We live in a highly technological age, which can be a boon to those who are reaching retirement age. What this means for home health care in the future is that technology will be used in places where a personal touch is not required. For example, home health nurses will still need to draw a patient’s blood, but technology is now available to remotely monitor heart rate, blood pressure, and temperature. Wearables such as smart watches or life alert systems are becoming indispensable assistants for seniors – these are wristbands or pendants that allow the person to press a button to summon help, call a loved one, or verbally ask for an ambulance. With an ever growing proliferation of such devices and service, there are now several comparison and review platforms to find the best medical alert system to match the senior’s exact requirements.
Other technology that is shaping the future of home health care includes:
- Medication-tracking devices and apps that remind someone when and how much medication to take. These come in the form of pillboxes with timers, medication reminder apps for a smartphone, and even setting up verbal reminders from a voice-activated device such as Alexa, Siri, or Google Home.
- Voice assistant technology such as hands-free voice-activated Amazon Alexa or Apple Siri, which can answer questions, play music and issue reminders are also programmable to call a loved one or 911. These devices also serve as companions for the elderly as well, providing music, stories, weather reports, and other information that can reduce isolation and provide some type of companionship.
- Ride-booking apps such as Uber and Lyft have been instrumental in providing scheduled rides to doctor appointments, grocery stores, or anywhere else seniors need to go at any time of day. These apps are particularly helpful for those senior citizens who no longer have a car or don’t feel safe driving. In 2018 Uber even launched Uber Health to focus on nonemergency medical transportation, and the program saw a 400% growth in the second quarter of 2019.
- Online portals that allow physicians and other stakeholders to keep track of a patient’s medical history, care plans and scheduling, and crucial contacts.
Whatever the future holds for home health care, it will definitely be bright as more senior citizens continue to age in place, use the technologies being developed, and receive the best health care they possibly can.