The nation needs organizations, strategies and policies to integrate resources to develop a sound intermediate care system for its aging population, participants at a conference on geriatrics said yesterday.
Intermediate care prevents elder patients with chronic illnesses from being hospitalized again after acute treatment. Unlike the long-term care system promoted in Taiwan, it fosters restoring and maintaining patients' independence, delegates at the conference held at Taipei Veterans General Hospital said.
The system has been widely implemented in Britain, but Taiwan has only made "limited" efforts in intermediate care, delegated said.
"We lack almost everything," Chen Liang-kung (
John Young, a professor from Leeds University in Britain, told the conference that intermediate care services include home care and day hospital services, community rehabilitation teams, nurse-led units, care home rehabilitation and community hospitals.
However, Chen said that when he compared Taiwan's current care system with that in Britain, he found it virtually impossible for the country to practice a similar hospital-at-home scheme for the elderly.
This may be a result of the National Health Insurance system's encouragement of medical institutions to provide in-patient services, he said.
He added that it would take not only education for the public and healthcare professionals but also a better "reimbursement policy" for health insurance for the scheme to work.
In addition, the country's community care services, supported by the health insurance scheme, does not encompass medical professionals other than physicians and nurses. Patients therefore may not be able to enjoy services such as occupational and physical therapy, he said.
Chen said Taipei City is the only area in the country that offers free therapy services and dietitians for residents.
Though the Department of Health and the Gerontology Society initiated a pilot project last year to promote the transformation of local community hospitals to transform into acute geriatric care hospitals, there was still a "long way to go," he said.
Hwang Shinn-jang (黃信彰), chief director of the veterans hospital's family medicine department, said the country's medical resources should be better integrated with community resources.
Pradeep Khanna, an experienced physician in intermediate care from Britain, suggested hospitals offer more education and training for staff to prepare them for future intermediate care projects.
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