ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on one of the major challenges that American society will face, the doubling of its elderly population between 2010 and 2030, from 35 million to over 70 million. It draws on medical and related support services provided the elderly other than in acute care hospitals—specifically in nursing homes and via home care programs. The predominant number were admitted either from a hospital or from their private residence; the remainder were transfers from another nursing home, a board and care facility, or a retirement home. Medicare recognized in the 1980s that it might speed the early release of certain patients from acute care hospitals if it provided some home-based specialized care services to speed their recovery. Three groups of medical employees were estimated to be among the fastest growing occupations: home health aides and nursing aides, orderlies and attendants, and medical assistants.
