SeniorBridge's Dr. Eric Rackow discusses the impact of shifting population demographics on discharge planners on Curaspan Knowledge Center 

Curaspan Knowledge Center - April 15, 2010 

The population is aging and Medicare beneficiaries will double to 80 million,” says Eric Rackow, M.D., CEO of geriatric care-management firm SeniorBridge and former president of New York University Hospitals. Meanwhile, “hospital and nursing-home beds are shrinking because treatment is offered outside those institutions, especially at home.”

These variations in utilization across the continuum of care are driven by the population age shift, as well as by medical advances. But our health-care infrastructure hasn’t kept up. “The system was designed for acute care,” says Dr. Rackow. “But as the population has aged, we’re living in a world of chronic illness.”

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