《TAIPEI TIMES》 Hospice care program to be expanded

‘SUPER-AGED’ SOCIETY: The program would recruit more medical teams and increase long-term care resources, NHIA Director-General Shih Chung-liang said

By Lin Chi-yi / Staff reporter

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The National Health Insurance Administration （NHIA） would expand its Acute Hospital Care at Home （AHCAH） program to include in-home hospice care next year, with about 60,000 people in hospice care expected to benefit from the policy change, NHIA Director-General Shih Chung-liang （石崇良） said yesterday.

Shih made the remark at an academic seminar held by the Formosan Medical Association in Taipei.

Taiwan next year would become a “super-aged society” — defined by the WHO as one in which 20 percent of the population is aged 65 or older — and is projected to have more than 1 million elderly people with disabilities by 2050.

The NHIA launched a trial AHCAH program this year, aimed at allowing people in the home-based medical integration program, emergency rooms or long-term care facilities who have an acute illness, but no longer need to be hospitalized, to return home or the facility to receive follow-up care, Shih said.

As of Sept. 30, 498 people were admitted to the trial program, he said.

Most of the cases were people aged 75 or older, he said, adding that the majority were admitted for urinary tract infections.

The average time spent in AHCAH care until they recovered was about 6.9 days for pneumonia and five days for urinary tract or soft tissue infections — an overall average of 5.6 days.

Only one person was rushed to an emergency room or hospitalized within three days after completing the program, he said.

About 80,000 people are in the home-based medical integration program and about 120,000 long-term care facility residents, and about one-third of them would be hospitalized every year, Shih said.

As they are hospitalized for an average of about 10 days, they would take up about 2,000 to 3,000 hospital beds per year, he said, adding that treating them through the AHCAH program would free up about five percent of acute beds in hospitals.

Hospice patients can usually still move around, but are physically weak, and if they stay in the hospital for too long, their risk of getting infections increases, he said.

Therefore, the NHIA is planning to expand the AHCAH program to include in-home hospice care next year, and about 60,000 people in hospice share care are expected to benefit from the policy change, he said, adding that the goal is for 80 percent of hospice patients to receive in-home hospice care.

The program for next year would recruit more medical teams, provide more bonuses for medical personnel during holidays, increase long-term care resources, set up remote patient monitoring mechanisms and emergency intervention medical teams for handling clustered infections, he said.

新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES