Long-Term Care Hospital and the Role of Neurologist

Lee, Dae Hie; Park, Kun Woo

Abstract

Korea health care system and public welfare system have been changed slowly and developed step by step. It makes efforts to promote the welfare of the people, but does not provide good benefits for geriatric patients. In 2008, it was incompletely set up the long term care system in Korea. And the Law on Long-Term Care Insurance for Elderly was officially announced in Nov. 2011 and the law for dementia, Dementia Management Act, was drafted in Feb. 2012. Though there were many laws, the concept of long-term care hospital and geriatric care facility is still obscure. In long-term care hospital, there are big expansion of the number of beds and institutions in Korea. Over a half of the patients in long-term care hospitals are suffered from mixed neurological diseases. Especially, dementia is the comorbid state with other chronic geriatric diseases. In view of the aging population, the role of neurologist will continue to grow. So neurologists need more special training for the needed skills and competencies, and the specific care settings program in long-term care hospital. In this review, the history and current state of long-term care hospital, related laws, and the role of neurologist will be discussed.