hospital impact

by Nick Jacobs

Why 2034? It’s actually the date that my actuarial has indicated that my individual involvement in this discussion should no longer have any viability. In other words it’s the projected date of my passing, but, believe me, there will be tens of thousands of we boomers contributing to this discussion until then.

A few years ago, during a scientific mission to Boston for a conference at MIT, it was my privilege to participate in a conference directed toward the challenge of keeping our senior citizens viable, active and out of long term care for as long as possible. We met with several health care professionals, engineers, and scientists who had taken on the challenge of miniaturizing every known type of monitoring system for the human body.

They had begun the effort to successfully decrease the size of these devices to the diameter of a nickel, the relative thickness of a potato chip and a cost of about twenty five cents each. We saw demonstrations of some of these miniaturized devices in actual use. They were adapting systems for monitoring the heart, blood pressure, brain function and respiratory system. With all of the flexibility that wireless communication can deliver, the unencumbered participants would be literally, wired for sound, as they moved freely through the special apartment that had been constructed for this research.

Each and every movement could be monitored all day, every day. The signals generated from the participants various organs were sent directly to a computer that was housed at a physician’s office where any missed beat could be reported through an alarm system that immediately notified the physician in charge.

Think of it. Pappy gets up from his chair, feels a little dizzy, sits back down, and the videophone rings with a healthcare professional checking to see if all is well.

Because of the 1984 feeling that some of we 1960’s free spirits might feel from this “Big Brother” type monitoring, it was suggested that the grandparent might also like to have her sibling monitored as well, thus giving the affect that they are indeed checking on each other.

Think of it. This system could very well keep us out of some offensive, under staffed, insufficiently reimbursed nursing home for at least an additional year or two.

In closing, however, I did receive an e-mail the other day with this suggestion. If you like to cruise, it would be more fun to live on the Pacific Princess for the rest of your life than in the Sunset Valley Nursing Center. The cost is similar, and when you trip and break your hip, they will upgrade you to a suite and deliver meals to your room.