Nature of Nursing Home Changes
Seniors who enter nursing homes to recuperate after surgery aren't likely to stay there long. While the size of the severely disabled population in Ohio
rose over the past four years, the occupancy rate of nursing facilities
dropped. In "A Study of Home Care and Nursing Home Patterns in Ohio," Dr.
Robert Applebaum, Miami University professor of sociology, gerontology and
anthropology, and colleagues Dr.'s Shahla Mehdizadeh and Jane Straker found 62 percent of people who move into nursing homes are gone in six months. (Some die, others move out). While nursing homes are handling more short-term care, the majority of long-term care outside of the nursing home is still provided
by family and friends.
Ohio and other states are developing less costly programs of supervised care at home to handle growing numbers of sick and elderly residents.
Applebaum is available at (513) 529-2632 or [email protected].
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