Question

Role of Technology in Long-Term Care

Using the South University Online Library and the Internet, find three articles describing the role technology will play in addressing the challenges ahead in long-term care. Summarize your findings and based on your learning, respond to the following questions:

• Which challenges in long-term care system remain unmet? Why?
• What changes can we expect to occur with the influx of baby boomers entering into the long-term care system?
• Why do you think technology is important to long-term care? Support your answer with relevant examples.
• What are the pros and cons of the implementation of technology in long-term care? Consider both providers and consumers while describing.
• How does technology improve the type and quality of care received by long-term care consumers?
• How important is the commitment by top management for the use of information technology in long-term care to be successful? Why?
• How can the challenges be proactively addressed as opposed to being reactive?

Answer 1

Ans) Many predisposing, enabling, and need factors in the Andersen model were significantly associated with unmet LTC needs among the oldest old in China. Economic status and caregivers’ willingness to provide care were the most important enabling factors for both rural and urban oldest old.

- Predisposing factors such as age and gender, enabling factors such as type of primary caregiver, and need factors such as ADL disability and cognitive impairment differed between urban and rural oldest old, which may be mostly explained by differing expectations for care which stem from differences in their standards of living and access to care resources.

- These findings have important implications for policy makers. Since economic status plays an important role in shaping unmet needs among the oldest old, providing financial assistance or some insurance coverage would be an effective way to help elders meet their needs. Improved economic conditions would enable the elderly to have access to medical services, including timely medical treatment, and to more care resources such as paid home care, thus decreasing their unmet needs. This assistance is particularly important for rural residents as they have lower SES and a higher prevalence of unmet needs.

• Regardless of their longer life expectancy, baby boomers were more likely to have higher rates of hypertension, higher cholesterol, obesity and diabetes. These results indicate that seniors will push the cost of health care higher and increase the need for health care professionals as the boomers age.

• Technology plays a vital role in the lives of older individuals. Indeed, for those in need of long-term care, it can potentially improve the efficiency of care delivery while enhancing the quality of that care and improving individuals' quality of life.

• Technology can improve the quality of care patients receive by averting medical errors, improving communication and boosting efficiency. In 2009, Congress approved $29 billion for a national HIT infrastructure with the aim to spur health care providers to adopt information technology more widely in their everyday work.

• Technology offers huge advantages to those using it over those who do not. Also through competition, and in order to keep up with the changes in regulation and financing top management use technology to computerize record keeping, electronic reporting for reimbursements, systems to manage information systems.