A Practical To-Do List For Family Caregivers
In order to maximize the important role they play, family caregivers must be proactive in speaking up, planning and documenting their ability to meet their loved one’s health care needs.
Key Steps Can Help Patients Recover From A Stay In The ICU
Chances of recovering after an ICU stay rise when families keep patients oriented, stay on top of care plans and encourage seniors to get moving.
Study: Elderly’s Family Caregivers Need Help, Too
A study by the National Academies finds more support is needed for nearly 18 million people giving care to family members 65 and older.
Study Finds Seniors Benefit When Asked How To Help Them
A federally funded research project in Baltimore has potential to help aging-in-place efforts elsewhere, a study in Health Affairs reports.
Gaps In Care Persist During Transition From Hospital To Home
A partnership between San Diego County and four health systems seeks to bridge the longstanding gap between hospitals and social services.
How To Fight For Yourself At The Hospital — And Avoid Readmission
This new column explains what older adults and their families can do to avoid hospital readmission.
‘America’s Other Drug Problem’: Copious Prescriptions For Hospitalized Elderly
Older people are often given a huge number of medications, and many of them are unnecessary or even harmful.
Protecting California’s Seniors From Surprise Hospital, Nursing Home Bills
Lawmakers approve bill to help Medicare patients with “observation care” costs.
Hospital Surprise: Medicare’s Observation Care
You’re in a hospital and think you’re admitted. Maybe not. Many Medicare beneficiaries are surprised to learn that even after spending a couple of days, they are receiving observation care, which Medicare considers an outpatient service, so the seniors’ costs can be more than expected.
As The For-Profit World Moves Into An Elder Care Program, Some Worry
PACE, a little-known Medicare program that helps keep older people in their own homes, is allowing for-profit companies in. Tech and venture capital have expressed interest.
Geriatric ERs Reduce Stress, Medical Risks For Elderly Patients
Overcrowding and chaos in traditional emergency rooms can harm seniors’ health. That’s prompting some hospitals to open ERs designed specifically for the elderly.
Elderly Patients In The Hospital Need To Keep Moving
Spending too much time in their hospital beds can leave older patients sicker than when they were first admitted.
Teaching In-Home Caregivers Seems To Pay Off
Intensive training for such aides helps reduce repeated ER visits and hospitalizations of elderly disabled people, a pilot project suggests.
Assisted Living Residents With Dementia Prone To Abusing Others, Study Finds
Residents with dementia need to be monitored and increased training is needed for staff who care for them, said researchers who examined reported instances of abuse in assisted living facilities.
Elderly Hospital Patients Arrive Sick, Often Leave Disabled
Some hospitals try to avoid sharp declines in the health of elderly patients by treating them in special units geared to their specific needs. This story is the first in a KHN series on the challenges hospitals face with an aging population.
Medicare’s Readmission Penalties Hit New High
Medicare will withhold an estimated $528 million in 2017 from more than 2,500 hospitals that have too many patients returning within 30 days.
Many Well-Known Hospitals Fail To Score 5 Stars In Medicare’s New Ratings
Of the 102 hospitals that received a five-star rating, few are among the elite generally praised for great care.
Medicare Prepares To Go Forward With New Hospital Quality Ratings
The government will soon give hospitals one to five stars to sum up their quality. Some safety hospitals and teaching hospitals won’t fare as well as other facilities.
Study: Medicare Beneficiaries May Face ‘Treatment Gap’ For Painkiller Abuse, Misuse
The incidence of opioid use disorder is growing rapidly within the Medicare population.
Younger Seniors Amass More End-Of-Life Care Than Oldest Americans, Study Finds
A Kaiser Family Foundation analysis sheds new light on a widely-held belief about the costs of end-of-life care.
