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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

#51

Post by peteradio »

soperj wrote: post #39
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 You're the richest nation on earth. You can afford it, the people who control the purse strings choose to use it on other shit that benefits themselves.

> You're the richest nation on earth*

*On paper

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

#52

Post by titanomachy »

tomrod wrote: post #30
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…

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…

> US is unwilling to support euthanasia

I don’t know about the rest of the US, but Washington and Oregon have allowed physician-assisted suicide for the terminally ill for years.

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

#53

Post by dragonwriter »

tomrod wrote: post #30
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…

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, purchase its homes, or enact reasonable public health measures without bankrupting people.

No, it can easily afford all that. It chooses not to because the US (that is, the majority of political power in the country) prefers to impose the pain of the imminent risk and frequent reality of bankruptcy on the working class.

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

#54

Post by TrispusAttucks »

swman wrote: post #38
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…

Or we could just you know, invest into this since all of us will be old some day and some of us may, even after a life time of contribution, could face unlucky circumstances that leave us alone in the end? What's wrong with dignity for other people, I feel like trying to maximize for monetary profit is going to be our downfall.

Unfortunately, the people with the power to "invest in this" will not ever be in the situation that the rest of us will be. Most "real" people are more worried about how their children will live with not enough time left over to deal with how their parents will die.

This is just one of many issues. We are coming apart at the seams in our society in so many ways that by solving one issue we must ignore another. There is so much poor investment across the board. It's tragic but I fear we are so far off the rails now that perhaps none of it can't be saved.

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

#55

Post by fighterpilot »

jimmytucson wrote: post #8

Sounds like we should tax senior homes to fund increased staff for fire departments, basically de-privatizing senior homes...

Just charge a call-out fee for the homes that use it. No need to punish well-run homes or pass new tax laws for something very easily addressed and internalized.

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

#56

Post by abeppu »

soperj wrote: post #39
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 You're the richest nation on earth. You can afford it, the people who control the purse strings choose to use it on other shit that benefits themselves.

Well, we also seem really bad at managing education. There has been a huge increase in the number of non-teaching staff (i.e. administration) in schools. At the same time that we wring our hands over class sizes, a growing proportion on dollars spent ostensibly on education go to stuff that doesn't happen in the classroom. We can "barely afford" stuff when we let a whole industry of nonessential stuff graft itself onto the thing we actually care about.

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

#57

Post by cepp »

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 in rural communities. These inessential emergency calls often lead to resources being expended without need. For example: the singular community ambulance being dispatched to the caller's home only because they wanted to chat. Even when considering the dispatcher filtering out these callers, and the emergency personnel doing their best to leave as quickly as possible, it still places a strain on the system. Tying up emergency personnel with mundane tasks creates a far greater risk for the community if & when they're needed.

We unfortunately found no solution to this problem. It ran deeper than just alleviating non-emergency emergency-response claims: it was due to the loneliness epidemic, and the company was uncomfortable shouldering the financial and legal cost of trying to create a solution.

1. https://www.aarp.org/personal-growth/transitions/info-09-201...

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

#58

Post by gowld »

titanomachy wrote: post #52
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…

> US is unwilling to support euthanasia I don’t know about the rest of the US, but Washington and Oregon have allowed physician-assisted suicide for the terminally ill for years.

Parent was referring to physician-mandated homicide.

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

#59

Post by TrispusAttucks »

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.

Capitalism can't save this. This is fundamentally a social decay problem. Modern social behavior sweeps all "unpleasant" grief under the carpet. Out of place out of mind.

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

#60

Post by titanomachy »

mberning wrote: post #43

Our medical system is completely screwed up from a capacity standpoint. I was sick a few weeks ago and called my primary care doc. No appointments for a week. Do an online appointment which is useless and they say I need to be seen. Go to urgent care. 4 hour wait. I figured that was my best option so toughed it out. During my time waiting I saw multiple people come in, talk to the receptionist, and leave in tears whe…

Wow, where is this? Doesn’t match my experience at all (US west coast).
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