Pourat Nadereh
UCLA Center for Health Policy Research, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
Policy Brief UCLA Cent Health Policy Res. 2013 Sep(PB2013-7):1-4.
The home care industry is growing rapidly and coincides with increases in the growth of the elderly population, who are more frequently chronically ill and disabled and need assistance. This policy brief provides a profile of the home care industry and patients/consumers of these services in California, assessing available data on licensure and certification as a mechanism for promoting safety and quality of care. The findings indicate a dearth of information on the characteristics and care delivery of home care agencies and individual providers of nonmedical home care. The findings also illustrate that licensure and certification of home health agencies may enhance the capacity for improvements in quality of care. Establishing licensure and basic safety standards for home care agencies is a reasonable public health policy for reducing the potential for adverse consequences among the growing aging and disabled populations.
家庭护理行业正在迅速发展，这与老年人口的增长相吻合，老年人慢性病和残疾的情况更为常见，需要帮助。本政策简报介绍了加利福尼亚州家庭护理行业以及这些服务的患者/消费者的情况，评估了有关许可和认证的现有数据，将其作为促进护理安全和质量的一种机制。研究结果表明，缺乏关于家庭护理机构和非医疗家庭护理个体提供者的特征及护理服务提供情况的信息。研究结果还表明，家庭健康机构的许可和认证可能会增强改善护理质量的能力。为家庭护理机构制定许可和基本安全标准是一项合理的公共卫生政策，有助于减少日益增长的老年和残疾人群体中出现不良后果的可能性。
