The good news: people are living longer than ever. The bad news: the infrastructure to help seniors age safely in their desired care setting–the home–is severely lacking.

The Silver Tsunami is here.

Every day, approximately 10,000 people turn 65 years old. By 2050, it’s estimated that people over 65 will represent more than 20 percent of the population, up from 15 percent today.

The good news: people are living longer than ever. With improved healthcare and medical advances, many seniors expect to live beyond the ages of their parents and grandparents.

The bad news: the infrastructure to help seniors age safely in their desired care setting–the home–is severely lacking.

Delivering a better patient experience

We’re entering a unique phase in healthcare where administrators and providers are no longer the boss, but rather patients and families are in charge of directing their own healthcare experiences. And the incentives that determine how healthcare providers get paid are changing, too. We’re continuing to see a move to bundled payments and value-based care, where hospitals and physicians are reimbursed for doing a really good job taking care of patients proactively, regardless of how many procedures or tests they run.

In addition, many leading hospitals, payers and providers have themselves gone through major transformations and consolidations. To deliver on the promise of these ventures, they will need to integrate people and processes and systems –no easy feat. Many of the industry’s recent mergers and acquisitions were done with great intent, recognizing that patients demand and deserve a better, easier, comprehensive and integrated experience.

Empowering caregivers

Today, the Dina platform empowers caregivers at every level to work together in real-time in an integrated, data-driven workflow experience. Together, we’ve unlocked what we call a ‘never discharge’ model that helps providers continue care in the right care setting at the right time.

The results have been massive. Working with our partners we’ve been able to reduce avoidable readmissions, prevent unnecessary ER visits, accelerate authorization speed and, most importantly, deliver a coordinated care journey for patients and their family members.

Now, as we look ahead, we see care continuing to move outside of the hospital and into the home and community. We see more virtual solutions and a greater emphasis on education and prevention. We see a future that recognizes the potential of the 43 million family caregivers who are thrust into that role with no warning, training or digital access to their professional healthcare team.

When we started Dina in 2015, our mission and vision were simple–to empower personal caregivers to take care of their loved ones and help them age in the comfort of their own homes. The years since our launch have taught us the important role that professional caregivers and providers, like skilled nursing, home care and suppliers of medical equipment, contribute to this vision.

By Ashish V. Shah, Dina CEO. This story originally appeared on LinkedIn.

 

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