Most patients who have been diagnosed with dementia will be subject to aggressive treatments. Since many of these patients cannot speak for themselves, they are often sent out in an ambulance unnecessarily. Dementia patients who are transported by ambulance are often hospitalized even if there is no immediate cause for the hospital stay.

1.            A recent study conducted on 300 patients with dementia in Boston shows that 30% of total expenditures were spent on hospital stays.

2.            Skilled nursing accounts for an additional 10%.

3.            It is believed that more than 75% of all hospitalizations of dementia patients can be avoided. They could actually be treated in the nursing home where they are currently located instead of being transported to an unfamiliar environment.

4.            Dementia patients are often sent to the hospital when they develop respiratory infections, especially pneumonia, which is actually a recurring and common problem in patients with progressed dementia.

5.            It is believed that the reason for the high number of hospitalizations is due to cost shifting by the nursing home. When a patient returns from a hospital stay, their next 100 days in the nursing home will be covered by Medicare at a higher rate than Medicaid payments have been paying.

6.            The billions of dollars that could be saved by reducing the number of hospitalizations could be better spent improving nursing home care.

Source: Senior Home Care Info