A Missed Opportunity to Recruit Specialists in Elder Care (NY Times - New Old Age blog)
June 20, 2011
File under: Another Smart Idea That’s Not Happening (Yet).
We face a shortage of all kinds of health care professionals with expertise in treating older patients: geriatricians, nurse-practitioners, social workers, geriatric psychiatrists. Well, scratch that — we already have such a shortage, as a report from the Institute of Medicine made clear back in 2008. Indeed, most counties in the United States have no geriatricians practicing within their borders.
The real challenge, according to Nancy Lundebjerg, chief operating officer of the American Geriatrics Society and co-organizer of a coalition called the Eldercare Workforce Alliance: “Can we keep the shortage of people with this training from getting any worse?”
