A glaring gap in the U.S. health care system — the giving of care at home — is burgeoning into a costly chasm. Pretty much everybody involved needs to pay close attention and finally act to deal with the nation’s failure to support home caregiving for the sick, injured, debilitated, and aged. The consequences of….
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Senate Democrats tackle nursing home menaces that also made virus so lethal
Senate Democrats, including chairs of two powerful committees, have started to tackle the nightmarish problems that experts blame for allowing the coronavirus pandemic to take a terrible toll on vulnerable residents of nursing homes and other long-term care facilities. Under a bill introduced by Ron Wyden, an Oregon senator and chair of the Senate Finance….
Continue ReadingIn the rush to return to normality, reasons abound why it just doesn’t feel that great
These are exhilarating times for optimists about the coronavirus pandemic, what with cases finally dropping to lows not seen in months, hospitalizations in major decline, and deaths falling sharply. Public health measures targeted to protect people from infection are lifting, pronto, and the nation is opening apace. Normality, however, isn’t exactly rushing in. And the….
Continue ReadingNursing homes’ lethal health-staffing problem: Churn rates as high as 300%
Churn may be a wonderful word when discussing fresh milk, heavy cream, and butter. But it can be a nightmare term for the too-common, rapid, and lethal turnover that occurs in health staff at nursing homes and other long-term care facilities. Personnel turnover left the aged, injured, and ailing residents at care centers, with an….
Continue ReadingBig freeze heats up need for emergency plans for individuals and institutions
The climate change deniers can holler their heads off. But for all too many people from coast-to-coast, Mother Nature’s fury is tragically clear — as is the importance of not only future thinking but also emergency planning, by individuals and institutions. This includes knowing common sense steps to safeguard one’s self and loved ones, in….
Continue ReadingFraudsters boost senior-care nightmares with ‘audacious’ hospice scams
With coronavirus infections and deaths rising anew in worrisome fashion from coast to coast, matters could not get worse with the nation’s long-term care, right? Guess again. Profit-mongering and “audacious, widespread fraud” apparently has run amok in hospice care in the Golden State. Because California, alas, too often serves as a trend-setting locale, patients, their….
Continue ReadingCovid-19 shifts from health menace to a political and economic nightmare, too.
The viral outbreak that exploded out of central China suddenly has captured the rapt attention of Wall Street, the White House, and Americans from coast to coast. The rising pitch and politicization of the important conversation about Covid-19 — a respiratory virus that already has posed a growing global health threat — can only be….
Continue ReadingFor seniors, harsh realities about dying at home, dementia drugs, and job harms
Although Americans may have particular wishes as to how their lives might close out, they aren’t getting these optimal outcomes for themselves and their loved ones. Instead, the much-desired option of dying at home is proving to be stressful and draining to the extreme for families, and, when it comes to the dreaded loss of….
Continue ReadingHere’s something as frightful as the weather outside: winter weight gain
Many of us may feel a little too hefty after weeks of seasonal feasting and merrymaking. But Old Man Winter also may share a slice of the blame for our weight gain at this time of year and beyond. Packing on a pound or two, maybe even five, may be more common at this time….
Continue ReadingHome care for the aged has become a quiet calamity for all involved
Americans are confronting a care-giving calamity with the elderly at home, and the alarms are sounding loudly about it. But are experts and politicians grasping the severity of this crushing health care shortfall? The New York Times, Vox, Washington Post, and Forbes all published detailed and solid news articles about the nation’s quiet nightmare with….
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