Long-Term Care

Long term care involves a broad spectrum of services, ranging from daytime help with activities of daily living (ADLs) to skilled nursing, specialty care, rehabilitation, and sub-acute care. It is typically delivered for an extended period of time, during which a patient’s needs may change, usually to require higher levels of care. A key goal of long term care is to help patients maintain a maximum degree of functional independence while providing a smooth continuum of care, from low-intensity services through post-acute care.

Four main types of long term care are common: Nursing homes are primarily engaged in providing inpatient nursing and health-related personal care; home health care encompasses medical care services delivered in the home by non-facility based home health care agencies, hospice care provides medical, psychological, and spiritual care for terminally ill patients and their families; assisted living communities provide daily meals, personal services, health care, and 24-hour personal care services for residents in a facility.

Although a small segment of long term care users are younger individuals with various mental and physical disabilities, most persons using long term care services are senior citizens. This population will also drive industry growth over the forecast period. Therefore, this report will focus on the elderly as the primary customers of long term care services. A driving factor in the aging of the population is the increase in life expectancy. In 1900, life expectancy was 47 years. In 1996, U.S. life expectancy at birth was 76.1 years - 73.0 years for men and 79.0 years for women. By 2005, however, average life expectancy had reached an all time high of 77.8 years and is expected to continue rising.