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Firefighters say they’re swamped by calls for routine care from senior homes

oregonlive.com

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Re: Firefighters say they’re swamped by calls for routine care from senior homes

#81

Post by LurkingPenguin »

MattGaiser wrote: post #3

If there is an industry that needs startups, it is long term care and senior care in general. Expensive, nearly universally badly done, and it seems like a lot of people could stay in their homes with some automated appliances/thoughtful redesigns of everyday items. Hoping that when my grandparents start needing it in 5-10 years that the options have dramatically improved.

> If there is an industry that needs startups, it is long term care and senior care in general.

Whatever happened to Soylent?

Re: Firefighters say they’re swamped by calls for routine care from senior homes

#82

Post by homert »

mtnGoat wrote: post #67

Playing devils advocate here but maybe we have too many fire fighters? I have four good friends that work in metropolitan fire houses all making well into the six figures. They constantly joke about how they get paid to do nothing and haven’t been on a fire in years, mainly they respond to calls at old folks homes. Oh and the only work a four or five days a month.

Many places they get paid per call. So maybe thats a factor.

Re: Firefighters say they’re swamped by calls for routine care from senior homes

#83

Post by mimikatz »

mtnGoat wrote: post #67

Playing devils advocate here but maybe we have too many fire fighters? I have four good friends that work in metropolitan fire houses all making well into the six figures. They constantly joke about how they get paid to do nothing and haven’t been on a fire in years, mainly they respond to calls at old folks homes. Oh and the only work a four or five days a month.

You are right. https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2012/07/fi...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2015/09/04/05316abe-...

Re: Firefighters say they’re swamped by calls for routine care from senior homes

#84

Post by germinalphrase »

xyzzyz wrote: post #68
tomrod wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So the solution is to spend less money but pay people more, and shoulder the rest on taxpayers? This probably won't work very long since the population isn't as triangular as it used to be (to my understanding this is what happened to Japan). I get the justified call to fix things for people that require these services. The US can barely afford to school its children, purchase its homes, or enact reasonable public he…

> The US can barely afford to school its children FWIW, US has one of the highest spend on education in the world. Among OECD countries, it is only behind Luxembourg, Norway, and Austria, and only barely so. If the educational outcomes in US are below expectations, it’s not because we spend too little, but rather because we’re not getting our money’s worth.

Funding and educational attention are bumpy metrics. Putting Mississippi and Massachusetts in the same bucket doesn’t lend itself to fair comparisons.

Re: Firefighters say they’re swamped by calls for routine care from senior homes

#85

Post by batch12 »

pmorici wrote: post #50
john_yaya wrote: post #15

Senior homes and assisted living centers are a national disgrace. They are entirely about profit maximization (what business isn’t?), and as such hire people at the exact minimum and have well over 100% yearly turnover. The staff commonly steal from residents, and the management do not care. They’d rather retain a larcenous pig who barely executes her duties than have to go back and scrape the barrel for a replacemen…

"Elderly people should live with their families." Spoken with the confidence of someone who has never had to care for an elderly relative who was in both mental and physical decline. In any case it is a deeply personal decision without a definitive right or wrong answer. After seeing my Aunt try to care for my grandmother for years only for it to negatively effect their relationship because of her dementia I wouldn't…

Damn-- in their 50s. I don't have much time left. I'd rather walk the planet than check myself into a center.

Re: Firefighters say they’re swamped by calls for routine care from senior homes

#86

Post by R0b0t1 »

LurkingPenguin wrote: post #79
cepp wrote: post #57

Back when I worked at $HEALTHCARE_INUSRANCE_CO we were trying to solve this (more general problem) from the other side. We regularly saw routine calls for what could only be described as "loneliness". Our research lead us to find that a high percentage of elderly folks (50+) identified as lonely regardless of their living situation. [1] Looking deeper into claims data, we found a high percentage of these calls were i…

> Our research lead us to find that a high percentage of elderly folks (50+)... People in their 50s are now considered elderly?

50%+, assuming.

Re: Firefighters say they’re swamped by calls for routine care from senior homes

#87

Post by nradov »

mtnGoat wrote: post #67

Playing devils advocate here but maybe we have too many fire fighters? I have four good friends that work in metropolitan fire houses all making well into the six figures. They constantly joke about how they get paid to do nothing and haven’t been on a fire in years, mainly they respond to calls at old folks homes. Oh and the only work a four or five days a month.

We need enough reserve firefighting capacity to respond to infrequent major fires. But when they're not fighting fires or training then they might as well respond to other emergencies.

Re: Firefighters say they’re swamped by calls for routine care from senior homes

#88

Post by thepasswordis »

mtnGoat wrote: post #67

Playing devils advocate here but maybe we have too many fire fighters? I have four good friends that work in metropolitan fire houses all making well into the six figures. They constantly joke about how they get paid to do nothing and haven’t been on a fire in years, mainly they respond to calls at old folks homes. Oh and the only work a four or five days a month.

Firefighters are a profession that is almost purely a good for society. I wouldn't support a reduction in firefighters until every single other member of the government was gone. In the post apocalypse I hope it is firefighters who are running the provisional government.

Re: Firefighters say they’re swamped by calls for routine care from senior homes

#89

Post by BuyMyBitcoins »

notwedtm wrote: post #17
GaryTang wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or firefighters can continue doing their job like the rest of us, seeing that they’re some of the highest paid members of our society… I think they’re just bitter they can’t use their lazy man recliners as much as they use to. I for one am glad they are finally experiencing what it’s like to work for any private organization.

I'm going to wager a guess that you didn't read the article. They are being called to change bandages and replace IV's. This is NOT a firefighters job.

I suspect firefighters are being called because firefighters tend to also be EMTs. I can understand how the practice caught on, but it does seem inappropriate.

Re: Firefighters say they’re swamped by calls for routine care from senior homes

#90

Post by elliekelly »

cepp wrote: post #57

Back when I worked at $HEALTHCARE_INUSRANCE_CO we were trying to solve this (more general problem) from the other side. We regularly saw routine calls for what could only be described as "loneliness". Our research lead us to find that a high percentage of elderly folks (50+) identified as lonely regardless of their living situation. [1] Looking deeper into claims data, we found a high percentage of these calls were i…

I used to volunteer with an organization that pairs people with lonely “elders”... kind of like a Big Brother/Big Sister program. The woman I was paired with was in her early 60s and went to the doctor constantly but there really wasn’t anything wrong with her. It took me a long time to realize she would go to all these appointments to give her something to do, some people to talk to, and sometimes as an excuse to get her (out of state) kids to talk to her on the phone a bit.

I’ll never forget when I was visiting her and realized she was looking forward to an entire day of medical testing appointments. At fist I thought maybe she had Munchausen’s (and maybe, in a way she did) but mostly I think she was just lonely.

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