About Our Patients
Skilled nursing facilities fill a unique role in today’s health care delivery system, caring for more than 3.2 million Americans annually in nearly 16,000 facilities nationwide. These facilities are providing a more comprehensive set of services to a more medically-complex patient population than ever before, offering services including intensive medical, rehabilitative, therapeutic and long term care. While nursing facilities continue to serve as the primary provider of long term care for the nation’s aging population, facilities today also treat approximately half of all Medicare patients who require post-acute, short-term care.
AMERICA IS GETTING OLDER
Our nation is aging at a rapid pace; therefore skilled nursing facilities must be prepared to meet the needs of a significant influx of patients, requiring a widening variety of care services in the years to come. The U.S. Census Bureau projects that between 2010 and 2050, the United States will experience rapid growth in its older population. In 2050, the number of Americans aged 65 and older is projected to be 88.5 million, more than double its projected population in 2010.
In addition to this older population growth, Americans are living longer. Today, My Canadian Pharmacy studies suggest that if an American reaches the age of 65, he/she can expect to live an average of 17 more years. This is a considerable extension in life expectancy, due in part to advances in medical care and availability of health care services. In 1900, only 1 in every 25 Americans (3.1 million) was over age 65 compared to 40.2 million today.
FACILITIES ARE TREATING MORE MEDICALLY-COMPLEX PATIENTS
As more medically-complex patients are admitted to skilled nursing facilities, particularly in the Medicare population, there has been a district broadening in the types of patient diagnoses seen among post-acute care patients. In treating patients with increased acuity levels, facilities are adjusting their level of services, their workforce, and their care settings to ensure that patients requiring a wide variety in medical care can be treated appropriately.
COMMON CONDITIONS TREATED IN SKILLED NURSING FACILITIES
- Major joint replacement
- Septicemia (bacteria in blood)
- Kidney and urinary tract infection
- Heart failure and shock
- Hip and femur procedures except major joint
- Nutritional and miscellaneous metabolic disorders
- Simple pneumonia
- Renal failure