Health Care Work Force Too Small, Unprepared For Aging Baby Boomers

Higher Pay, More Training, And Changes In Care Delivery Needed To Avert Crisis
April 14, 2008

WASHINGTON — As the first of the nation's 78 million baby boomers begin reaching age 65 in 2011, they will face a health care work force that is too small and woefully unprepared to meet their specific health needs, says a new report from the Institute of Medicine. The report, Retooling for an Aging America: Building the Health Care Workforce, calls for bold initiatives starting immediately to train all health care providers in the basics of geriatric care and to prepare family members and other informal caregivers, who currently receive little or no training in how to tend to their aging loved ones. Medicare, Medicaid, and other health plans should pay higher rates to boost recruitment and retention of geriatric specialists and care aides, said the committee that wrote the report.

The committee set a target date of 2030 — the year by which all baby boomers will have turned 65 or older — for the necessary reforms to take place. the rest image