scholarly journals Degrees of Shortage and Uncovered Ratios for Long-Term Care in Taiwan’s Regions: Evidence from Dynamic DEA

Author(s):  
Kuo-Feng Wu ◽  
Jin-Li Hu ◽  
Hawjeng Chiou

The government is facing the country’s aging population and low birth rate have led to a severe shortage of its healthcare workforce in Taiwan after 2003. In order to explore the status of the country’s degree of long-term care shortage and uncovered ratio, this research uses the Push-Pull-Mooring (PPM) theory to explain long-term care efficiency during 2010–2019 in each city and county. We collect longitudinal-sectional data for 2010–2019 from the Ministry of Health and Welfare’s Department of Statistics for 22 administrative regions in Taiwan in each year and employ dynamic data envelopment analysis (DEA) to evaluate the overall technical efficiency and the disaggregate output insufficiency to explain the research results. The main findings are as follows: (1) Cities near the capital Taipei have the highest degree of shortages in long-term caregivers and high uncovered ratios of people who need long-term care. (2) Presently, there is no demand to increase the number of long-term care institutions in Taiwan. (3) The government should introduce new long-term care certificates through national examinations in order to develop a stronger professional workforce in this field.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Henry Yu-Hin Siu ◽  
Lorand Kristof ◽  
Dawn Elston ◽  
Abe Hafid ◽  
Fred Mather

Abstract Background: The COVID-19 pandemic is a significant public health emergency that impacts all sectors of healthcare. The negative health outcomes for the COVID-19 infection have been most severe in the frail elderly dwelling in Canadian long-term care (LTC) homes.Methods: An online cross-sectional survey of Ontario LTC Clinicians working in LTC homes in Ontario Canada was conducted to provide the LTC clinician perspective on the preparedness and engagement of the LTC sector during the COVID-19 pandemic. The survey questionnaire was developed in collaboration with the Ontario Long-Term Care Clinicians organization (OLTCC) and was distributed between March 30, 2020 to May 25, 2020. All registered members of the OLTCC and Nurse-led LTC Outreach Teams were invited to participate. The primary outcomes were: 1) the descriptive report of the screening measures implemented, communication and information received, and the preparation of the respondent’s LTC home to a potential COVID-19 outbreak; and 2) the level of agreement, as reported using a five-point Likert scale), to COVID-19 preparedness statements for the respondent’s LTC home was also assessed.Results: The overall response rate was 54% (160/294). LTC homes implemented a wide range of important interventions (e.g. instituting established respiratory isolation protocols, active screening of new LTC admissions, increasing education on infection control processes, encouraging sick staff to take time off, etc). Ample communications pertinent to the pandemic were received from provincial LTC organizations, the government and public health officials. However, the feasibility of implementing public health recommendations, as well as the engagement of the LTC sector in pandemic planning were identified as areas of concern. Medical director status was associated with an increased knowledge of local implementation of interventions to mitigate COVID-19, as well as endorsing increased access to reliable COVID-19 information and resources to manage a potential COVID-19 outbreak in their LTC home.Conclusions: This study highlights the communication to and implementation of recommendations in the Ontario LTC sector, despite some concerns regarding feasibility. Importantly, LTC clinician respondents clearly indicated that better engagement with LTC leaders is needed to plan a coordinated pandemic response.


2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (13) ◽  
pp. 3530 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaocang Xu ◽  
Linhong Chen

The aging population in China highlights the significance of elderly long-term care (LTC) services. The number of people aged 65 and above increased from 96 million in 2003 to 150 million in 2016, some of whom were disabled due to chronic diseases or the natural effects of aging on bodily functions. Therefore, the measurement of future LTC costs is of crucial value. Following the basic framework but using different empirical methods from those presented in previous literature, this paper attempts to use the Bayesian quantile regression (BQR) method, which has many advantages over traditional linear regression. Another innovation consists of setting and measuring the high, middle, and low levels of LTC cost prediction for each disability state among the elderly in 2020–2050. Our projections suggest that by 2020, LTC costs will increase to median values of 39.46, 8.98, and 20.25 billion dollars for mild, moderate, and severe disabilities, respectively; these numbers will reach 141.7, 32.28, and 72.78 billion dollars by 2050. The median level of daily life care for mild, moderate, and severe disabilities will increase to 26.23, 6.36, and 27 billion dollars. Our results showed that future LTC cost increases will be enormous, and therefore, the establishment of a reasonable individual-social-government payment mechanism is necessary for the LTC system. The future design of an LTCI system must take into account a variety of factors, including the future elderly population, different care conditions, the financial burden of the government, etc., in order to maintain the sustainable development of the LTC system.


Author(s):  
Sunhee Park ◽  
Heejung Kim ◽  
Chang Gi Park

Abstract Background South Korea established universal long-term care insurance (LTCI) in 2008. However, actual requests for LTCI remain lower than government estimates because some eligible candidates never apply despite their strong care needs. This study aimed to examine factors affecting LTCI applications for older, community-dwelling Koreans. Methods Both individual- and community-level data were obtained from a national dataset from the Korea Health Panel Survey and the Korea National Statistical Office (N = 523). Data were analyzed using multilevel modeling. Results Only 16.4% of older adults in need of care applied for LTCI. Those who applied were more likely to be older, report poor self-rated health, receive care from non-family caregivers, and have caregivers experiencing high levels of caregiving burden. Regional differences in LTCI applications existed concerning the financial condition of one’s community. Conclusions Our study findings emphasize that Korean LTCI should implement both individual and community strategies to better assist older adults in properly acquiring LTCI. The government should make comprehensive efforts to increase access to LTCI in terms of availability, quality, cost, and information by collaborating with local centers.


2017 ◽  
Vol 45 (6) ◽  
pp. S164
Author(s):  
Colleen Roberts ◽  
Katherine Buechel ◽  
Kelley Tobey ◽  
Pamela Talley ◽  
Marion Kainer

2017 ◽  
Vol 117 (6) ◽  
pp. 1244-1262 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dong-Shang Chang ◽  
Shu-Ming Liu ◽  
Yi-Chun Chen

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to find the key innovative principles for evaluating the long-term care (LTC) cloud system by exploring contradictory and complex points in its development. Design/methodology/approach The theory of inventive problem solving (TRIZ) and the decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) approaches are integrated to resolve complex contradictions in the system. The heuristic reasoning of TRIZ is applied to obtain innovation principles for an LTC cloud mining system. However, the importance and feasibility of these innovative principles require further assessment. In this study, DEMATEL is employed to clarify the complex relationships among the principles and evaluate their key influences. Findings This paper identifies six primary contradictions and derives 25 innovative principles for the resolution of these conflicts. Further analysis confirms three key innovative principles. First, the government should consider the overall planning of the cloud system platform, followed by the participation of other medical and LTC institutions. Second, the information capability of LTC institutions should be unified by recording the pathology data of care recipients to create an information exchange system. Third, LTC institutions should act in cooperation with medical institutions to provide professional medical capabilities. Originality/value The contributions of this paper are two-fold. First, this study provides an integrated methodology integrating the TRIZ and DEMATEL approaches to resolve LTC problems. Second, this research identifies the key innovative principles for developing an LTC cloud system in Taiwan.


2013 ◽  
Vol 2013 ◽  
pp. 1-6
Author(s):  
Shunichiro Shinagawa ◽  
Shiori Nakamura ◽  
Makoto Iwamoto ◽  
Norifumi Tsuno ◽  
Masahiro Shigeta ◽  
...  

Background. A new public long-term care (LTC) insurance was launched in 2000 in Japan. However, there have been few studies involving factors that increase LTC costs of demented subjects; no follow-up studies involving the Government-Certified Index (GCI) and requisite costs related to the causes of dementia.Method. An epidemiological survey was conducted in a rural area in Japan in 1999, and 271 subjects were diagnosed as dementia patients. Age, sex, mini-mental state examination, clinical dementia rating, activity of daily living, causes of dementia, and coexisting physical disease were confirmed. After the LTC insurance has been launched, we tracked the GCI stages and payment amounts every month for 8 years.Result. 209 subjects were certified to be eligible for LTC insurance; however, 13 did not receive any payment. Only 49 out of 209 were alive after the follow-up period. The most common cause of dementia was Alzheimer’s disease (AD), followed by vascular dementia (VaD). There was no significant difference between the mortality rates of the two groups. VaD subjects required higher costs than AD subjects in the total certified period and in GCI stage 5.Conclusion. Our results indicate that causes of dementia can have an impact on the requisite costs for the LTC insurance.


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