Production Management in the Elderly Care Services

Author(s):  
Nora Ekroos ◽  
Erkki Vauramo

In western countries, the so-called demographic time bomb, that is, the ageing of the baby-boom generation, has become one of the most challenging issues. Although it has become almost clichéd in health care planning, its effects are being felt rather acutely in reality. The situation in Finland, as in many other western countries, is compounded by the fact that as demand for elderly care is increasing, the service systems are suffering from severe labor and tax funding shortages. In fact, population in Finland is aging faster than any other OECD country (Antolin, Oxley, & Suyker, 2001). Elderly care centers have difficulties in hiring qualified professional staff. Nursing staff are also burdened by heavy workloads. The situation will worsen by time as the number of elderly people in our population increases further, leading to increased strain on health care resources. The present service structure is not going to be able to respond to this demand. Yet health care funding, which depends on public financing, will decrease as the number of taxpayers declines due to the aging of our workforce. “Elderly dependence ratio,” a key demographic indicator, will approximately double over the next two decades (Eurostat, 2005).

2013 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-60 ◽  
Author(s):  
Iwona Sobis

Abstract Reforms of the public sector, conducted in the spirit of NPM since the 1990s, are frequently studied by Western and Eastern scholars. The research shows national variations in how the NPM idea was translated and adapted into a country’s context and regulations. Care for the elderly is an interesting example of reforms conducted in the spirit of NPM, because it relates to welfare and health care and to the competences of provincial and local authorities in most European countries. This paper addresses the following questions: What do we know about the reforms conducted in the spirit of NPM and its practical implication within the field of care for the elderly during 1990 - 2010? What kind of knowledge about care for the elderly is still missing and should be developed in the future ? Th is paper conducts comparative research on what is known about the effects of the Swedish and the Polish reforms regarding care for the elderly. It argues that most literature points to negative effects, but also to the fact that there are still gaps in our knowledge about the effects of reforms concerning elderly care, especially regarding its organization. Hence, despite all the research done, we do not know what kind of social and health-care services for seniors represent the best practices for the future.


2021 ◽  
Vol 257 ◽  
pp. 03060
Author(s):  
Shih-Feng Chang ◽  
Wei-Fen Du ◽  
Jin Wang ◽  
Ma-Yan Lin ◽  
Du Peng

With the continuous growth of China’s elderly population, the demand for elderly care services has increased dramatically. Due to the influence of Chinese people’s cultural concept of elderly care, most of the elderly are more inclined to home-based care, enjoy the happiness of children and grandchildren, and enjoy family happiness. At present, there are some problems in home-based health care services, such as lack of professional talents and single service mode. This entrepreneurial project which is proposed by Wish Magic has grasped the pain points of China’s elderly care problems, and brought about some problems. Efforts should be made to build a sharing platform for elderly care services, attract professionals to provide professional services for the elderly, and hold diversified activities to meet the material and spiritual needs of the elderly. The planned market strategy of the project is divided into three steps. Firstly, the project will be carried out in the first and second tier cities, and then expanded to the third tier cities. Later, the market will be expanded to the fourth tier cities. At the same time, the project will cooperate with government departments to strive for government funding and policy support, and provide accurate services in combination with online and offline ways, so as to meet the diversified pension needs of the elderly.


1998 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 555-574 ◽  
Author(s):  
Larissa I. Remennick ◽  
Naomi Ottenstein-Eisen

The post-1989 immigration wave from the former U.S.S.R. has increased the Israeli population by over 12 percent, seriously affecting the host health care system. This study draws on semi-structured interviews with the immigrants visiting outpatient clinics in the Tel-Aviv area in order to explore organizational and cultural aspects of their encounter with the Israeli medical services. While instrumental aspects of care were seen as an improvement over the Soviet standards, communication between providers and clients was seriously flawed, reflecting both a language barrier and diverse cultures of illness and cure. Many interviewees complained of the impersonal, “technical” attitude of Israeli physicians toward patients and the lack of holism in care, which they allegedly enjoyed before emigration. Some immigrant patients feel deprived of the paternalism of the Soviet medical system, complaining that Israeli providers “forego responsibility” for patients' health. A consumerist approach to medical services is also a novelty, and immigrants have to learn to be informed and assertive clients. Most problems are experienced by the elderly patients; overall, women seem to adjust to the new system better than men.


2004 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 365-371
Author(s):  
A. A. Mahfouz ◽  
A. I. Al Sharif ◽  
M. N. El Gamal ◽  
A. H. Kisha

Use of primary health care [PHC] services and satisfaction among elderly people [60 + years] in Asir was studied in 26 PHC centers. They visited PHC centers significantly less often than younger adults but they were referred significantly more often to secondary and tertiary care and for more laboratory tests. A r and om sample of 253 elderly people attending the centers was interviewed about accessibility, continuity, humaneness, informativeness and thoroughness of care. Overall, 79.0% were satisfied with the services provided. The leading 3 items of dissatisfaction were:not enough audiovisual means for health education [65.1%], long time spent in the centre [46.4%], and not enough specialty clinics [42.5%]


2021 ◽  
Vol 275 ◽  
pp. 03003
Author(s):  
Yi Ding ◽  
Zhe Zhang ◽  
Meiyun Yang ◽  
Fengqi Sun

This research focuses on a service acquisition mode for parents in urban separated families of China to promote the popularization of elderly care services in Internet economy. Based on interviews and questionnaires, authors find the pain point of the elderly care service acquisition mode and propose a tripartite participatory mode. Using this new service acquisition mode, adult children can play an assistant role with a smartphone-based service purchase platform. Next, in order to determine what services should be provided priorly on the platform, an empirical study based on questionnaires and KANO model is carried out to screen a propriate services items. Through the innovation of new elderly care service acquisition mode, more practitioners are supposed to expands their business effectively in aging market, and to play an ever more active role in the growth of Internet economy.


Author(s):  
Satu Pekkarinen ◽  
Helinä Melkas

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the innovation opportunities related to digitalisation in health care and elderly care services using a “pothole approach”. The study focuses on two innovative e-service concepts developed in Finland for enhancing the well-being of senior citizens: The hStick (health stick) and the mStick (memory and reminiscence stick). The data consist of 59 thematic interviews and focus group meetings, observation data and diaries collected in pilot cases. The innovation opportunities related to the novel e-service concepts are identified and explored using the pothole approach. The potholes in the stick system are first identified and then studied as sources and opportunities for potential future innovations. This study offers a novel perspective on research concerning technology and e-services and the various innovation opportunities made possible once technological and other shortcomings have been identified.


2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (Supplement_4) ◽  
Author(s):  
T Funk ◽  
B Forsberg

Abstract Background In the Stockholm region, a regional political assembly is responsible for health care services for a population of 2.3 million. In November 2017, the political leadership decided on a programme to project health and healthcare developments in the Stockholm region until 2040 as a basis for a longterm health plan. This presentation aims to describe the methodology used, share some results and raise some questions for further work. Through the presentation we also seek collaboration with European partners involved in similar health planning work. Methodology Six perspectives for analysis were defined and under each a set of areas for deeper analysis identified. It was agreed that the planning should be fact-driven. Under the constraint of availability, data covering the period 2000 to 2017 was collected for around 90 variables. Data was gathered from various publicly available databases and was analysed in Microsoft Excel. Results Stockholm’s population increased continuously since the millennial shift and could increase by another 28% until 2040. Since 2000, life expectancy increased by 2 years for women and 3 years for men. More than 85% of the burden of disease is caused by chronic diseases. However, the overall disease burden per 100 000 population has been decreasing over the years. In 2017, more than 21 million outpatient care visits were done. Extrapolations of these trends show that the disease burden per capita will continue to decrease, but the total burden of disease as well as demand for health care will continue to increase. Discussion A fact-based analysis of future health and healthcare proved to be an efficient base for planning and discussions of future health care services. Results confirmed some well-established perceptions of developments but also pointed to some misconceptions and established “facts” that proved to be false. New digital services make prediction of the future health service mix dynamic and challenging. Key messages To meet future health care needs, future health and health care trends should be planned for and considered in decision making processes. Forecasts and health care planning should be fact-based to have an as accurate picture of future health and health care trends as possible.


2012 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-44 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tom Miller

I was initially assigned the working title, “Pursuing Equality in Health Care for the Elderly Is Futile.” I prefer to think of that particular dead end of health policy as one of listening to the wrong music for too long. Hence, this article reprises and revises the title song of the early 1980s movie, Urban Cowboy, but with Johnny Lee’s original lyrics adapted as “Looking for better health [rather than either ‘love’ or ‘love of equality’] in all the wrong places.” The better goal is to achieve more progress in improving health for more people, including (but not limited to) the elderly. It need not be as futile as the pursuit of the elusive abstraction of “equality” for all — but only if we first move away from a path-dependent approach of recent times that remains too narrowly focused on statistical disparities in health care services received by particular groups.


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