As technology progresses, facility populations will lessen.
An article in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution caused me to take notice.
Mobile phone providers are getting very interested in health. And in keeping people out of acute settings.
According to the article, AT&T Mobility has formed a separate division called Digital Life Services. Verizon Wireless has formed its own team focused solely on the health care industry.
Analysts say the home health care industry technology component could be between $1.5 billion and $2.5 billion including wireless companies, technology developers, hospitals, doctors, insurers and home builders. And boomers want to stay in their home and they like technology.
AT&T Mobility sells pill bottle tops called GlowCaps, which flash and send out ringtones to remind people to take their medicine. They want to do more.
From the newspaper - "The focus of all of health care now is really to reduce in-patient hospital care, nursing home care, facility kind of care," said Mark Oshnock, chief executive officer of Atlanta-based Visiting Nurse Health System.
Technology is already infiltrating care facilities. But this is beyond that. There is a clear push to move care outside of the nursing and assisted living walls. And is a common theme in our blogs, providers need to start re-thinking their business model. And it is more than just nursing homes becoming rehabilitation providers and assisted living taking on more acute residents that were formally in nursing homes.
Administrators of a certain age need to put their personal hat on and think about how they want to age and where they want to age and that should start guiding decisions about future care models. Boards of directors in long-term care need to take an active role in assuring that your current facilities are at the table for all aging discussions whether it is about technology or extending the services of care to more aspects of the continuum.
I am feeling nervous that long-term care providers are slowly being left behind with an outdated model of care.
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