The intention of the paper is to discuss the effects of best practices of patient’s long-term care in Southern California. The long term care practices at one of the popular health care destinations – Magnet Hospitals is taken as the basis for further detailed study. The paper will be presenting some of the best long-term care procedures available today for patients of all categories and would be identifying the necessity to further popularize the importance of this in most patients. A traditional method of care and support to the patient is home care category where the spouse or children of the patients will take care of their needs.
The long-term care facilities in hospitals include care of the patients at their homes with necessary treatment and support facilities. This kind of arrangement is helpful to patient’s relatives with their schedule and also provides continuous support to the patients. “The supervision of care or hands-on care from informal caregivers is limited to activities that don’t require a skilled background. Lifting , bathing, dressing, diapering, toileting and helping with walking can be a challenge to family caregivers because they don’t have the proper tools or are not trained in this area.
Or the children of elderly care-recipients may have difficulty dealing with cleaning messy bottoms or bathing their parents. Another problem may be handling errant behavior from dementia or depression” (Day, n. d. , para. 1). Discussion: The areas under consideration in long term care process are nursing care, physical attention including grooming and personal hygiene, timely medication, psychological support, counseling, close monitoring and educating family members. The paper discusses the procedures of Magnet Hospitals care department in order to get an in depth knowledge of how major hospitals govern their own long-term care policies.
“A national survey conducted in March 1999 by Wirthlin Worldwide, dramatically illustrates the competitive edge enjoyed by Magnet designated facilities. The survey found that 93% of the public would have more confidence in the overall quality of a hospital if that hospital had passed the nursing standards required to be a Magnet Program. The same survey found that 85% of the public would have more confidence in a long-term care facility that had passed similar nursing standards” (The benefits of becoming a magnet designed facility, 2010, para.
Magnet designated courses especially nursing offers categorized long-term treatment and support plans for patients which are supposed to be the best in this category. People need to be educated regarding the importance of home care at a professional scale which includes medical specifications and medical care at the right time. The current situation is not just about spreading awareness but is to provide complete long term care for patients. Professional assistance including mental support is mandatory even from the very beginning. Recognized organizations like Magnet prefer to follow this path of long term medical care.
A recent study report presents the details as: “This year, about nine million men and women over the age of 65 will need long-term care. By 2020, 12 million older Americans will need long-term care. Most will be cared for at home; family and friends are the sole caregivers for 70 percent of the elderly. A study by the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services says that people who reach age 65 will likely have a 40 percent chance of entering a nursing home. About 10 percent of the people who enter a nursing home will stay there five years or more” (Long-term care, 2009, para. 2).