From the AP–

NEW YORK – One in five Medicare patients end up back in the hospital within a month of discharge, a large study found, and that practice costs billions of dollars a year. The findings suggest patients aren’t told enough about how to take care of themselves and stay healthy before they go home, the researchers said. A few simple things — like making a doctor’s appointment for departing patients — can help, they said.
The study found that a surprising half of the non-surgery patients who returned within a month hadn’t even seen a doctor between hospital stays.

Good doctors save lives and money, but they don’t usually make house calls. Nurses and Home Health Aides are there in the home– teaching people how to stay out of the hospital, and reporting to the doctor when things start to take a turn for the worse.

Our mission is to keep people healthy and independent. The patients are usually on the same page with us, so it’s a mutual effort. It takes money up front, but it will eventually save money, and it’s cheaper to make a visit 3 times a week than to place someone in a nursing home 24/7.

Billions. It’s going to be spent. Care isn’t cheap. But we can decide how it will be spent and what we want to buy with our health tax dollars.