There's good news and bad news for the home care industry. The good news is that our industry is growing - fast! The easiest way to put this into perspective is that for the last 10 years, an average of 10,000 baby boomers have been turning 65 every day and this will continue for the next 20 years.
The bad news is that there aren't enough caregivers to meet this demand. In his 2017 book, "Who Will Care for Us: Long-Term Care and the Long-Term Workforce," MIT professor Paul Osterman explains that there will be a shortage of 151,000 professional caregivers in 2030 and a shortage of 355,000 professional caregivers in 2040. Osterman explains that these are conservative estimates.
Here in 2020, the shortage of quality caregivers is the number one concern of the majority of home care agencies.
How Do We Solve the Home Care Worker Shortage?
Solving the caregiver shortage will be the most important question for the home care industry in this decade and beyond. This will be the main area of innovation for Ankota, and we'll be keeping you informed via this blog and news. As a preview, the answers will come from a lot of different areas including the following:
- Adult Day Care Centers will grow significantly
- Shared caregiver models will emerge (where one caregiver will serve several clients who are proximate to one another)
- Home care needs will influence immigration policy
- Younger seniors will need to help older seniors
- Technology will play a key roll in enabling remote care
- and many more...
If you have innovative ideas in this arena, we'd encourage you to share them and if you'd consider sharing them on this blog, please send us a note.
Ankota provides software to improve the delivery of care outside the hospital, focusing on efficiency and care coordination. Ankota's primary focus is on Care Transitions for Readmission avoidance and on management of Private Duty non-medical home care. To learn more, please visit www.ankota.com or contact us
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