1Assistant Professor, Department of Hospital Management, H.N.G. University, India
2Dean, California School of Management and Leadership, Alliant International University, U.S
Online published on 31 October, 2017.
The federal administration on ageing anticipates that by 2030, 72 million (20% of total population) Americans will be above the age of 65 years. This number is almost 13% at present. Interestingly, every day nearly 10000 baby boomers enter the age group of 65 years. Also, almost 90% of the elderly have single or multiple chronic illness which needs continuous medical care. The problem is not the ageing population or increased prevalence to disease, but the acute shortage of trained clinicians to take care of the ageing population. According to the American Geriatrics Society, in the next fifteen years, America will have only one geriatrician for a population of 4000 elders. This prediction is strengthened by the fact that in 2014, there were almost 7500 practicing geriatricians in the US and in 2013, only 75 physicians opted for geriatric fellowship. Increasing life expectancy, increased burden of disease and decrease in the number of care providers is gradually leading to an inevitable situation, where the elders are left alone in the later years of their life. Few of these situations have been compiled on this article and probable solutions have also been discussed.
Geriatrics, OECD, Older Adults
