The COVID-19 pandemic brought knee and hip replacements to a virtual halt because they aren’t usually considered emergency procedures. But they are profitable, and hospital systems are now counting on the surgeries to help restore their financial health.
Experts say folks 60 and up must continue to limit exposure in the years to come — even after there is a vaccine for COVID-19.
Older adults with the ability to use technology have more access to virtual social interactions and telehealth services, and more opportunities to secure essential supplies online. Those who don’t know how to use it or can’t afford it are at greater risk of social isolation, forgoing medical care and being without food or other necessary items.
Half the states are rolling back strict policies that have kept family members out of nursing homes because of fears of spreading the coronavirus.
Some are grieving the loss of precious time in late life. Others are adjusting their ideas of what is possible and making the best of it.
People who put off care as COVID-19 surged are easing back into the medical system. Here’s how to know if it’s safe.
For three years, staffers at UCLA Health have been quietly fulfilling final wishes for dying patients in the intensive care unit. Amid the isolating forces of the pandemic, their work has become all the more meaningful.
On their own in dirty buildings with little guidance or support, vulnerable older residents worry about unchecked transmission of the potentially deadly virus. “We felt abandoned.”
More than 3,000 nursing homes reported less than a week’s worth of supplies, and 653 said they had run out entirely at some point. Stopgap FEMA equipment has not reached many facilities, and packages that have arrived have fallen short of promises.
As doctors look for alternative ways to charge patients for care, some Medicare enrollees may lose access to their physicians.
