Dr. Bill Thomas, an independence officer for Lifespark, shares his vision for the health system of tomorrow with an emphasis on improved quality of care for older adults. He discusses the “twilight” of the hospital-centric health system of today, and explains the forces driving a major shift toward community and home-based care.
As part of The Vision Series, in an interview with Aging Media, he says:
“Around 1910, Abraham Flexner published a report on the state of medicine in America, and it became very influential in driving the centralization and consolidation of health care. At that time, health care was a sprawling, uncontrolled cottage industry, and the Flexner Report led us toward the hospital-centric model we have today.
“I’m not being critical of that report. I’m not saying it was a bad thing. I’m saying it was an intermediate step. Florence Nightingale had a vision that health care belonged at home; that home is where you would get the best health care. And maybe 170 years after her time, we are starting to see this change take place.
“I think we’re approaching the twilight era of large, hospital-centered health care systems because those systems are expensive. They have continuing problems of quality, and they weren’t built for helping large populations of older people live good lives with multiple comorbidities.” Read more.
