August 1, 2022 • 19 mins
Text your grey haired host for a shout out on an upcoming show!
Health care, especially for our seniors, is an every-day evolving topic. When it comes to keeping the differing levels of health care sorted and fine-tuned to meet the health care challenge in Florida, Ken Peach, the Executive Director of the Health Care Council of East Central Florida is considered one of the leading experts in the field.
Mr. Peach serves on a myriad of health care councils and boards while sharing expertise from each with the entire group.
The Great American Senior Show's grey-haired host, Sam Yates, sat down with Ken Peach at the Space Coast Health Care Foundation for today's show.
The Great American Senior Show podcast is produced by Yates & Associates, Public Relations & Marketing. This podcast is part of the network of podcasts streaming under the umbrella of the Pod National News Network. For more information about Yates & Associates or the Pod National News Network, contact Sam Yates at (772) 528-5185 or Sam@Yatespro.com. Sponsorship opportunities are available. The Great American Senior Show is ranked 3rd Best in Senior Podcasts to Follow for 2023 in all podcasts for seniors in a comprehensive survey by feedspot.
30 Best Senior Podcasts You Must Follow in 2023 (feedspot.com)
Yates & Associates is a full-service Public Relations and Marketing company serving select clients throughout the United States and abroad. For more information visit www.YatesPRO.com .
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Sam Yates (00:11):
Hello, everyone and welcome to another exciting
edition of The Great AmericanSenior Show. I'm Sam Yates, your
gray-haired host. And today I'mlucky to have a friend of mine
and also an expert in a varietyof different expertise. Ken
Peach is with me, Ken, welcometo the program. Sam.
Ken Peach (00:30):
It's wonderful. Thank you.
Sam Yates (00:31):
Can you are Executive Director of the Health Council
of East Central Florida, amember of the Brevard Community
Health Care Coalition and manyothers around the state, how is
it that you have all the talentthat you could get involved in
all of these differentorganizations,
Ken Peach (00:45):
Part of the job of the Health Council of the
Central Florida which is theplanning organization is to be
engaged across all of thecounties we serve. And so as a
result of that, I probably serveSam on eight or nine different
boards related to communityhealth in each of those counties
that we serve.
Sam Yates (01:04):
And, you know, I mentioned that you and I have a
friendship and we also have akindred friendship in that we
both have a broadcastingbackground and I always love to
let our audience know a bit morethan just name and title for
someone. Tell us about yourbackground.
Ken Peach (01:20):
I actually started in broadcasting in high school and
volunteering and then workingfor a radio station on the
Jersey Shore that I ended upactually rebuilding from the
ground up years later afterschool graduated from Seton Hall
University which while thereparticipated on WSU their FM
station into Manhattan, and thenended up coming down to the to
(01:44):
Florida to buy and run WWF L inClermont, Florida for a while
before switching over tohealthcare.
Sam Yates (01:50):
And you know, just for our audience, if you're ever
around someone, and they'retelling you a radio or
television names, and they getdown to the call letters. One
cue as to far as how far theyare into it as being a
professional. They say W and youknow, and I chuckled because
(02:12):
there it is kid is like WWE. Andthat's true even down to
identifying the the websiteinstead of W it's w. So just a
little tidbit
Ken Peach (02:24):
and it would have been Wk RP using my initials.
But somebody else got a TV showwith that first.
Sam Yates (02:30):
And I swear I thought turkeys could fly one of the
greatest episodes of all time,and I love that program. But
let's let's switch back tohealth care. We are still in the
emergent side and emerging froma COVID pandemic. I know that we
(02:51):
still have the remnant violence,it's still wreaking havoc in a
lot of different areas. Peopleare ill, we still have a higher
than normal ba five variant, andothers I'm sure are going to
come along. One of the keylessons out of all of that is we
(03:11):
have a very vulnerablepopulation, our senior
population, we found that theywere being cared for in a
variety of institutions. Butlooking back now, those that
were cared for at home or wereprovided, stay at home
opportunities fared much better.
key lesson,
Ken Peach (03:33):
I think there's a realization, the one thing that
COVID has done for Sam is it'smoved us much further along.
Telehealth was something thatplayed a very minor role. You
know, the idea of treatingindividuals, seniors and others
in their home from a distancewas just not something that had
really taken off, it probablymoved a decade ahead because of
(03:54):
COVID. We're also seeing theexpansion through technology of
wearables, how many of us wearsome type of an Apple watch or
something that's giving us anindication of our cardiac health
at any one time, mobileservices, more and more services
now delivered in the home mobilediagnostics, labs. And then the
newer thing right now is the useof AI in texting, for example,
(04:18):
reminders, what we call devicelists, remote patient
monitoring, so that every dayyou receive a message that says
you know, how are you feeling?
Click one or push two and, andthat way, somebody's analyzing
that and saying, Okay, we needto go out and see Sam today or
okay. So a lot of new technologyhas enabled us to move care from
you going to care to care comingto you. And
Sam Yates (04:42):
I think even from an insurance standpoint, I know it
seems like decades ago, but whenwe were talking about remote
care, even in the insurancecoding, there was not a
classification even as vast asthe ICD 10 happened to be today.
There is, so more and more ofthose types of services are
(05:03):
being covered by insurance,
Ken Peach (05:04):
right? Actually, we saw a major shift as well,
because physicians ran intoproblems. As individuals were
afraid to come out to see theirdoctors, the physicians had to
figure out a way so they veryquickly adopted telehealth. But
those practices that we're doingtraditional medicine, had 20%, I
believe, of the US physicians,primary care physicians in the
(05:26):
country, are either jeopardizedfor future or went out of
practice.
Sam Yates (05:31):
You know, and you and I both are voracious readers, we
read anything that happens toget in front of us, when it
comes to healthcare, and some ofthe technology you're talking
about AI in particular, thewearables. An interesting
article, that is not was not arecent article, but was about at
home care, where the providingagency or providers actually
(05:57):
installed sensors, for example,in the shower. And those sensors
were able to give a reading ofthat person's health just from
the effluent from the water andthe interaction with a person's
body. It's amazing
Ken Peach (06:13):
company actually developed here in Central
Florida, received some funding,or a number of years ago, I
opened up down in Miami, andthey use exactly what you're
saying. But not only that, butthey can actually because their
computer can analyze that candetermine if an individual is
developing an issue by thechange in their living pattern,
(06:35):
because that's established overa couple of weeks. And then the
system notes, wait a minute,maybe someone unfortunately, is
getting up more often in themiddle of the night. What is
that indicating possibly, youknow, UTI, or some other health
issue.
Sam Yates (06:46):
And then it gets back to that notification process.
And, you know, I hate to saythat we're experiencing better
health and better aging throughtechnology. But we are a lot of
people have shied away fromthat. And today, I think they're
not necessarily shying away fromit. Because it's not that
notable as far as, Hey, Sam, weare monitoring, blah, blah,
(07:08):
blah, it's an unknown thatprobably is helping us out a
lot.
Ken Peach (07:11):
There was a physician up in Maine a number of years
ago, who was losing patients,because the families would
invite their parents to moveaway from the neighborhood and
the life that they knew comedown south to Florida or
somewhere, because we'reconcerned about you being by
yourself. So he hired a bunch ofpeople put them in a room with
TV monitors, they put a cameraunder the bed, and a sensor. And
(07:35):
when that person got up in themiddle of the night, they would
know and they can make sure thatthey got back in safely. I
remember him telling us thestory of this one woman who, for
some reason was on her couch inthe middle of the night, and
they sent the neighbor over, shehad turned off her furnace in
Maine instead of turning off thelight. And as a result, it was
60 something degrees in the homeand she's in there shivering,
(07:57):
they were able to give her soupand no emergency department, no
hospitalization.
Sam Yates (08:03):
And that that leads right into aging in place. That
is a buzz phrase that is gainingpopularity. It's been around a
while, but not just within ourhealthcare communities. But it's
also within our builders,communities that are builders
associations around the country,the National builders are all
(08:23):
recognizing from builders allthe way down to grassroots that
our vulnerable population ofseniors and those with an
illness or disability of sometype are better off aging and
home some of the statistics thatyou may share?
Ken Peach (08:39):
Well, first of all, there are 76 million baby
boomers and people forget,that's 18 years from 1946 to 64.
So we only began to see themchanging, you know, to 65 and
2011. It'll be 2029 before thisends, so we have a long ways to
go yet. And the boomers whenasked years ago said hey, we're
(09:00):
not going to age gracefully. Soif you look at their desire, it
is to live independently. Lifeexpectancy has climbed from 60
at age 65, from about 12 yearsback in the 1900s to 19 years
now in 2010, beyond age 65, andwe're expected to actually
(09:23):
outnumber the number ofchildren. So that means less
children to take care of us. Sohow do we stay independent and
part of that is we have toprovide support. And so more and
more efforts are being made nowto enable individuals as you're
saying Sam to live at home insome type of a setting in their
later years. So they don't haveto go into institutional
(09:44):
housing,
Sam Yates (09:45):
that move to care at home though it's a big story.
It's something that we all needto pay attention to.
Ken Peach (09:52):
Right bend and you know, the the other piece of
that, as I alluded to in themain story is people don't want
to be torn out of theneighborhoods and where they've
lived. And if you can keep themthere, that is a tremendous,
tremendous support. Because, youknow, speaking very generally
people resist change as they getolder.
Sam Yates (10:14):
Now, before we get too much further into the
program, I tried to keep an eyeon things. And you and I could
sit and talk all day long. Imean, we have proven that many
times at some of the meetings weattend. But will you be able to
come back and be my guest?
Again, at some point, if youwant to be my honor? All right,
great. We're gonna I'm gonnahold you to that, because I know
our audience really enjoyspeople just as much as they
(10:39):
enjoy information. And I knowthat a lot of folks are attuned
to podcast as a new method ofcommunications. And I want to
come back to that in a moment ifI could. But health care
facilities and hospitals rightnow, in all of the areas that
(10:59):
you and I are involved in, whatare the big things are trying to
do is reduce the number ofreadmissions? Why is that
important?
Ken Peach (11:10):
readmissions for two reasons? One, I don't think any
of us when we come out of thehospital want to go back into
the hospital within 30 days.
Right. And that's what thatreadmission period is. And the
other thing is Medicare hasbasically said, Why are we
paying for individuals to betreated in your hospital, they
come out and then they go rightback in, and you're asking us to
pay for it again. So they nowpenalized financially, the
hospitals for thosereadmissions. So as a result of
(11:32):
that, you have both the hospitaldesiring to control that. And
also you have individuals whowould prefer to stay out.
Sam Yates (11:40):
And when you say penalized, I think that was
probably something that thosewithin the industry, were taking
a look at and wondering, is thatactually going to go into
effect? It has,
Ken Peach (11:53):
yes, to a degree, keeping in mind that the
hospitals make a great deal ofmoney for having patients in the
hospital. But they are makingthis effort to try and keep
individuals out as much aspossible and hospitals are
changing, we're seeing a movetoward more and more outpatient
has been going on for years. Andwhat we're seeing now is that
(12:16):
independent organizations areactually growing faster than the
hospitals themselves. And somore and more businesses going
out of the hospitals and intothe settings, leaving us with
probably the future of intensivecare and emergency department
paying pretty much the hospitalservices.
Sam Yates (12:32):
And even to the point of having some hospitals going
into a ventricle hospital athome.
Ken Peach (12:40):
Yes, hospital at home. And we're also seeing
Skilled Nursing Facility athome, we're seeing more and more
desire, again, to keepindividuals whether they're in
an acute episode. And by usingdaily visits by using remote
patient monitoring we referencedearlier in the show, these are
the things that are allowing theindividuals excuse me to age at
(13:00):
home and and to be able to stayout of the hospital.
Sam Yates (13:03):
A recurring theme, as we talk to hospital officials or
healthcare officials of anysort, even right down to the
local level is yes, we go toconferences, yes, we get
together for meetings, and wecome away with great ideas to
improve everything that we aredoing for the ultimate patient
care and the continuum of care,then it all sort of begins to
(13:28):
dissolve. And the reason givenfor that dissolving of the focus
is lack of communications.
Ken Peach (13:37):
And so often it's actually lack of communications
between the healthcare providersthemselves. So one of the things
that you see in MedicareAdvantage plans is you'd see a
focus now on more primary carephysician the difference between
traditional Medicare when youchoose what doctor you go to and
Medicare Advantage where youwere assigned, or you choose a
primary care physician, to beyour your individual that now
(14:01):
helps you navigate and you know,keeps you aware of okay, this is
something you need or not anddoes a better job of
coordinating for you. So we wantto see more individuals and
that's why Medicare Advantage asa choice is just running away
with with individuals over age65.
Sam Yates (14:17):
Absolutely. And I recently had a one of the the
Regional Representatives forMedicare Advantage and she was
driving home that same point.
And one of the things that alsoimpacts that is our lack of
staffing for many of thefacilities, even lack of of
personnel to help care at homeand I know that's something that
(14:38):
you're familiar with
Ken Peach (14:40):
that that's a big issue because we are we are
facing a massive shortage ofphysicians and now with all of
the churn because of COVID.
We're also seeing a shortage ofnurses and others. We chose at
the Health Council begin usingand 2017 paramedics to go into
the home and to help individualswho remain in the home through a
combination of diseasemanagement for their chronic
(15:02):
health conditions and self careeducation to teach them how to
care for themselves. And thatprogram is just expanding leaps
and bounds.
Sam Yates (15:11):
And you know, I guess that really, really makes sense
because paramedics are qualifiedin that care arena. But based on
a typical paramedics schedule,they have time.
Ken Peach (15:24):
Right? Well, the nice part is that these are non EMS
paramedics. So ours are employedpurely for managing chronic
conditions. So they will becoming to someone's home for
3060 90 days on a weekly basis,just to make sure to check in
make sure they're okay. And someof the things they've
discovered, Sam are notnecessarily clinical. They're
the other things. They're thereason why one doctor couldn't
(15:45):
figure out why his patient wasgoing through the emergency
department every few days, untilour paramedic discovered,
squatters had moved in, we'reeating our food, taking her
money. And we've also foundanother woman in a wheelchair
who had a rope tied from herwheelchair to the front door to
keep the door closed. That wasonly security she had in her
home. These are the things youfind that a physician will say,
Why isn't this patient doingthis? And I'm telling them to
(16:08):
do? They don't see what's goingon in the home.
Sam Yates (16:10):
Now is the situation with the paramedics and the care
provided by the paramedics? Isthat something that if one of
our listeners wanted to find outmore, would they go through a
physician? Or can it be doneindependently?
Ken Peach (16:23):
Actually, it's done through a physician, because
state law allows us to workwhere a physician supervises
paramedics, so we work withphysicians, and we sign on with
medical groups who offer thisservice to their to their
patients. twofold question
Sam Yates (16:40):
for those professionals that medical
groups, how do they find outmore?
Ken Peach (16:45):
Well, first of all, for the medical groups, it's
generally look at our website,we have a website called care
medics me di x with dashes inthere dot o RG. And that
describes for the physiciangroup exactly how it works. We
have quotes on there from ourpatients who have experienced
this. So it's Kara medics.org.
Sam Yates (17:05):
The biggest thing that you can think of just
putting on a, what if hatlooking to the future, where do
you see for our seniors athealthcare in general? Where do
you see some of the big pointsof interest in focus going
forward?
Ken Peach (17:22):
I think same as you've so nicely brought this
together is care delivery ismoving to the home, we recognize
that about I've been at theHealth Council 12 years, about
11 years ago, we started movingin that direction. And we use a
lot of different techniques, notjust the Paramedicine and the
technology and so forth. We alsohave a medical assistant who
(17:44):
gets enrolled seniors inPrescription Assistance Programs
to save them 1000s of dollars onprescriptions. All of these
things, basically, under thepremise that people want be in
their home, we are not going tobe able to house everybody all
74 million baby boomers, ininstitutional housing, we have
to be able to look at what do wedo to keep them home?
Sam Yates (18:06):
If someone wants more information than what we've been
able to talk about today, and inour time here together, and they
want to reach out to youdirectly. May they do that?
Ken Peach (18:16):
Certainly, I'll give you my email address and I'm
going to use the codes is alittle easier. So it's K peach
just like for fruit at HotelCharlie eco, Charlie
foxtrot.org, which is K Peach atHCECF dot o RG
Sam Yates (18:34):
absolutely ingenious way to make people remember it.
Because, you know, there's somany acronyms. It's difficult
sometimes for us to remember itall. And, Ken, I want to thank
you for being on the programtoday. And I've already gotten
the commitment that you're goingto come back in the future and I
like to call in thosecommitments.
Ken Peach (18:51):
Sam, it's my pleasure. Thank you for the
opportunity. Ken peach of theExecutive
Sam Yates (18:55):
Director of the Health Council of East Central
Florida, a member of the BrevardCommunity Health Care Coalition
and many others around the stateand a friend. I want to thank
you so very, very much for beinghere and we're looking forward
to having you back in the nearfuture. And as we look forward
to having Ken come back in thenear future, I just want to say
(19:17):
Until then I am Sam Yates yourgray-haired host of The Great
American Senior Show. And that'sthe way our program ends.
Hello, everyone and welcome to another exciting
edition of The Great AmericanSenior Show. I'm Sam Yates, your
gray-haired host. And today I'mlucky to have a friend of mine
and also an expert in a varietyof different expertise. Ken
Peach is with me, Ken, welcometo the program. Sam.
Ken Peach (00:30):
It's wonderful. Thank you.
Sam Yates (00:31):
Can you are Executive Director of the Health Council
of East Central Florida, amember of the Brevard Community
Health Care Coalition and manyothers around the state, how is
it that you have all the talentthat you could get involved in
all of these differentorganizations,
Ken Peach (00:45):
Part of the job of the Health Council of the
Central Florida which is theplanning organization is to be
engaged across all of thecounties we serve. And so as a
result of that, I probably serveSam on eight or nine different
boards related to communityhealth in each of those counties
that we serve.
Sam Yates (01:04):
And, you know, I mentioned that you and I have a
friendship and we also have akindred friendship in that we
both have a broadcastingbackground and I always love to
let our audience know a bit morethan just name and title for
someone. Tell us about yourbackground.
Ken Peach (01:20):
I actually started in broadcasting in high school and
volunteering and then workingfor a radio station on the
Jersey Shore that I ended upactually rebuilding from the
ground up years later afterschool graduated from Seton Hall
University which while thereparticipated on WSU their FM
station into Manhattan, and thenended up coming down to the to
(01:44):
Florida to buy and run WWF L inClermont, Florida for a while
before switching over tohealthcare.
Sam Yates (01:50):
And you know, just for our audience, if you're ever
around someone, and they'retelling you a radio or
television names, and they getdown to the call letters. One
cue as to far as how far theyare into it as being a
professional. They say W and youknow, and I chuckled because
(02:12):
there it is kid is like WWE. Andthat's true even down to
identifying the the websiteinstead of W it's w. So just a
little tidbit
Ken Peach (02:24):
and it would have been Wk RP using my initials.
But somebody else got a TV showwith that first.
Sam Yates (02:30):
And I swear I thought turkeys could fly one of the
greatest episodes of all time,and I love that program. But
let's let's switch back tohealth care. We are still in the
emergent side and emerging froma COVID pandemic. I know that we
(02:51):
still have the remnant violence,it's still wreaking havoc in a
lot of different areas. Peopleare ill, we still have a higher
than normal ba five variant, andothers I'm sure are going to
come along. One of the keylessons out of all of that is we
(03:11):
have a very vulnerablepopulation, our senior
population, we found that theywere being cared for in a
variety of institutions. Butlooking back now, those that
were cared for at home or wereprovided, stay at home
opportunities fared much better.
key lesson,
Ken Peach (03:33):
I think there's a realization, the one thing that
COVID has done for Sam is it'smoved us much further along.
Telehealth was something thatplayed a very minor role. You
know, the idea of treatingindividuals, seniors and others
in their home from a distancewas just not something that had
really taken off, it probablymoved a decade ahead because of
(03:54):
COVID. We're also seeing theexpansion through technology of
wearables, how many of us wearsome type of an Apple watch or
something that's giving us anindication of our cardiac health
at any one time, mobileservices, more and more services
now delivered in the home mobilediagnostics, labs. And then the
newer thing right now is the useof AI in texting, for example,
(04:18):
reminders, what we call devicelists, remote patient
monitoring, so that every dayyou receive a message that says
you know, how are you feeling?
Click one or push two and, andthat way, somebody's analyzing
that and saying, Okay, we needto go out and see Sam today or
okay. So a lot of new technologyhas enabled us to move care from
you going to care to care comingto you. And
Sam Yates (04:42):
I think even from an insurance standpoint, I know it
seems like decades ago, but whenwe were talking about remote
care, even in the insurancecoding, there was not a
classification even as vast asthe ICD 10 happened to be today.
There is, so more and more ofthose types of services are
(05:03):
being covered by insurance,
Ken Peach (05:04):
right? Actually, we saw a major shift as well,
because physicians ran intoproblems. As individuals were
afraid to come out to see theirdoctors, the physicians had to
figure out a way so they veryquickly adopted telehealth. But
those practices that we're doingtraditional medicine, had 20%, I
believe, of the US physicians,primary care physicians in the
(05:26):
country, are either jeopardizedfor future or went out of
practice.
Sam Yates (05:31):
You know, and you and I both are voracious readers, we
read anything that happens toget in front of us, when it
comes to healthcare, and some ofthe technology you're talking
about AI in particular, thewearables. An interesting
article, that is not was not arecent article, but was about at
home care, where the providingagency or providers actually
(05:57):
installed sensors, for example,in the shower. And those sensors
were able to give a reading ofthat person's health just from
the effluent from the water andthe interaction with a person's
body. It's amazing
Ken Peach (06:13):
company actually developed here in Central
Florida, received some funding,or a number of years ago, I
opened up down in Miami, andthey use exactly what you're
saying. But not only that, butthey can actually because their
computer can analyze that candetermine if an individual is
developing an issue by thechange in their living pattern,
(06:35):
because that's established overa couple of weeks. And then the
system notes, wait a minute,maybe someone unfortunately, is
getting up more often in themiddle of the night. What is
that indicating possibly, youknow, UTI, or some other health
issue.
Sam Yates (06:46):
And then it gets back to that notification process.
And, you know, I hate to saythat we're experiencing better
health and better aging throughtechnology. But we are a lot of
people have shied away fromthat. And today, I think they're
not necessarily shying away fromit. Because it's not that
notable as far as, Hey, Sam, weare monitoring, blah, blah,
(07:08):
blah, it's an unknown thatprobably is helping us out a
lot.
Ken Peach (07:11):
There was a physician up in Maine a number of years
ago, who was losing patients,because the families would
invite their parents to moveaway from the neighborhood and
the life that they knew comedown south to Florida or
somewhere, because we'reconcerned about you being by
yourself. So he hired a bunch ofpeople put them in a room with
TV monitors, they put a cameraunder the bed, and a sensor. And
(07:35):
when that person got up in themiddle of the night, they would
know and they can make sure thatthey got back in safely. I
remember him telling us thestory of this one woman who, for
some reason was on her couch inthe middle of the night, and
they sent the neighbor over, shehad turned off her furnace in
Maine instead of turning off thelight. And as a result, it was
60 something degrees in the homeand she's in there shivering,
(07:57):
they were able to give her soupand no emergency department, no
hospitalization.
Sam Yates (08:03):
And that that leads right into aging in place. That
is a buzz phrase that is gainingpopularity. It's been around a
while, but not just within ourhealthcare communities. But it's
also within our builders,communities that are builders
associations around the country,the National builders are all
(08:23):
recognizing from builders allthe way down to grassroots that
our vulnerable population ofseniors and those with an
illness or disability of sometype are better off aging and
home some of the statistics thatyou may share?
Ken Peach (08:39):
Well, first of all, there are 76 million baby
boomers and people forget,that's 18 years from 1946 to 64.
So we only began to see themchanging, you know, to 65 and
2011. It'll be 2029 before thisends, so we have a long ways to
go yet. And the boomers whenasked years ago said hey, we're
(09:00):
not going to age gracefully. Soif you look at their desire, it
is to live independently. Lifeexpectancy has climbed from 60
at age 65, from about 12 yearsback in the 1900s to 19 years
now in 2010, beyond age 65, andwe're expected to actually
(09:23):
outnumber the number ofchildren. So that means less
children to take care of us. Sohow do we stay independent and
part of that is we have toprovide support. And so more and
more efforts are being made nowto enable individuals as you're
saying Sam to live at home insome type of a setting in their
later years. So they don't haveto go into institutional
(09:44):
housing,
Sam Yates (09:45):
that move to care at home though it's a big story.
It's something that we all needto pay attention to.
Ken Peach (09:52):
Right bend and you know, the the other piece of
that, as I alluded to in themain story is people don't want
to be torn out of theneighborhoods and where they've
lived. And if you can keep themthere, that is a tremendous,
tremendous support. Because, youknow, speaking very generally
people resist change as they getolder.
Sam Yates (10:14):
Now, before we get too much further into the
program, I tried to keep an eyeon things. And you and I could
sit and talk all day long. Imean, we have proven that many
times at some of the meetings weattend. But will you be able to
come back and be my guest?
Again, at some point, if youwant to be my honor? All right,
great. We're gonna I'm gonnahold you to that, because I know
our audience really enjoyspeople just as much as they
(10:39):
enjoy information. And I knowthat a lot of folks are attuned
to podcast as a new method ofcommunications. And I want to
come back to that in a moment ifI could. But health care
facilities and hospitals rightnow, in all of the areas that
(10:59):
you and I are involved in, whatare the big things are trying to
do is reduce the number ofreadmissions? Why is that
important?
Ken Peach (11:10):
readmissions for two reasons? One, I don't think any
of us when we come out of thehospital want to go back into
the hospital within 30 days.
Right. And that's what thatreadmission period is. And the
other thing is Medicare hasbasically said, Why are we
paying for individuals to betreated in your hospital, they
come out and then they go rightback in, and you're asking us to
pay for it again. So they nowpenalized financially, the
hospitals for thosereadmissions. So as a result of
(11:32):
that, you have both the hospitaldesiring to control that. And
also you have individuals whowould prefer to stay out.
Sam Yates (11:40):
And when you say penalized, I think that was
probably something that thosewithin the industry, were taking
a look at and wondering, is thatactually going to go into
effect? It has,
Ken Peach (11:53):
yes, to a degree, keeping in mind that the
hospitals make a great deal ofmoney for having patients in the
hospital. But they are makingthis effort to try and keep
individuals out as much aspossible and hospitals are
changing, we're seeing a movetoward more and more outpatient
has been going on for years. Andwhat we're seeing now is that
(12:16):
independent organizations areactually growing faster than the
hospitals themselves. And somore and more businesses going
out of the hospitals and intothe settings, leaving us with
probably the future of intensivecare and emergency department
paying pretty much the hospitalservices.
Sam Yates (12:32):
And even to the point of having some hospitals going
into a ventricle hospital athome.
Ken Peach (12:40):
Yes, hospital at home. And we're also seeing
Skilled Nursing Facility athome, we're seeing more and more
desire, again, to keepindividuals whether they're in
an acute episode. And by usingdaily visits by using remote
patient monitoring we referencedearlier in the show, these are
the things that are allowing theindividuals excuse me to age at
(13:00):
home and and to be able to stayout of the hospital.
Sam Yates (13:03):
A recurring theme, as we talk to hospital officials or
healthcare officials of anysort, even right down to the
local level is yes, we go toconferences, yes, we get
together for meetings, and wecome away with great ideas to
improve everything that we aredoing for the ultimate patient
care and the continuum of care,then it all sort of begins to
(13:28):
dissolve. And the reason givenfor that dissolving of the focus
is lack of communications.
Ken Peach (13:37):
And so often it's actually lack of communications
between the healthcare providersthemselves. So one of the things
that you see in MedicareAdvantage plans is you'd see a
focus now on more primary carephysician the difference between
traditional Medicare when youchoose what doctor you go to and
Medicare Advantage where youwere assigned, or you choose a
primary care physician, to beyour your individual that now
(14:01):
helps you navigate and you know,keeps you aware of okay, this is
something you need or not anddoes a better job of
coordinating for you. So we wantto see more individuals and
that's why Medicare Advantage asa choice is just running away
with with individuals over age65.
Sam Yates (14:17):
Absolutely. And I recently had a one of the the
Regional Representatives forMedicare Advantage and she was
driving home that same point.
And one of the things that alsoimpacts that is our lack of
staffing for many of thefacilities, even lack of of
personnel to help care at homeand I know that's something that
(14:38):
you're familiar with
Ken Peach (14:40):
that that's a big issue because we are we are
facing a massive shortage ofphysicians and now with all of
the churn because of COVID.
We're also seeing a shortage ofnurses and others. We chose at
the Health Council begin usingand 2017 paramedics to go into
the home and to help individualswho remain in the home through a
combination of diseasemanagement for their chronic
(15:02):
health conditions and self careeducation to teach them how to
care for themselves. And thatprogram is just expanding leaps
and bounds.
Sam Yates (15:11):
And you know, I guess that really, really makes sense
because paramedics are qualifiedin that care arena. But based on
a typical paramedics schedule,they have time.
Ken Peach (15:24):
Right? Well, the nice part is that these are non EMS
paramedics. So ours are employedpurely for managing chronic
conditions. So they will becoming to someone's home for
3060 90 days on a weekly basis,just to make sure to check in
make sure they're okay. And someof the things they've
discovered, Sam are notnecessarily clinical. They're
the other things. They're thereason why one doctor couldn't
(15:45):
figure out why his patient wasgoing through the emergency
department every few days, untilour paramedic discovered,
squatters had moved in, we'reeating our food, taking her
money. And we've also foundanother woman in a wheelchair
who had a rope tied from herwheelchair to the front door to
keep the door closed. That wasonly security she had in her
home. These are the things youfind that a physician will say,
Why isn't this patient doingthis? And I'm telling them to
(16:08):
do? They don't see what's goingon in the home.
Sam Yates (16:10):
Now is the situation with the paramedics and the care
provided by the paramedics? Isthat something that if one of
our listeners wanted to find outmore, would they go through a
physician? Or can it be doneindependently?
Ken Peach (16:23):
Actually, it's done through a physician, because
state law allows us to workwhere a physician supervises
paramedics, so we work withphysicians, and we sign on with
medical groups who offer thisservice to their to their
patients. twofold question
Sam Yates (16:40):
for those professionals that medical
groups, how do they find outmore?
Ken Peach (16:45):
Well, first of all, for the medical groups, it's
generally look at our website,we have a website called care
medics me di x with dashes inthere dot o RG. And that
describes for the physiciangroup exactly how it works. We
have quotes on there from ourpatients who have experienced
this. So it's Kara medics.org.
Sam Yates (17:05):
The biggest thing that you can think of just
putting on a, what if hatlooking to the future, where do
you see for our seniors athealthcare in general? Where do
you see some of the big pointsof interest in focus going
forward?
Ken Peach (17:22):
I think same as you've so nicely brought this
together is care delivery ismoving to the home, we recognize
that about I've been at theHealth Council 12 years, about
11 years ago, we started movingin that direction. And we use a
lot of different techniques, notjust the Paramedicine and the
technology and so forth. We alsohave a medical assistant who
(17:44):
gets enrolled seniors inPrescription Assistance Programs
to save them 1000s of dollars onprescriptions. All of these
things, basically, under thepremise that people want be in
their home, we are not going tobe able to house everybody all
74 million baby boomers, ininstitutional housing, we have
to be able to look at what do wedo to keep them home?
Sam Yates (18:06):
If someone wants more information than what we've been
able to talk about today, and inour time here together, and they
want to reach out to youdirectly. May they do that?
Ken Peach (18:16):
Certainly, I'll give you my email address and I'm
going to use the codes is alittle easier. So it's K peach
just like for fruit at HotelCharlie eco, Charlie
foxtrot.org, which is K Peach atHCECF dot o RG
Sam Yates (18:34):
absolutely ingenious way to make people remember it.
Because, you know, there's somany acronyms. It's difficult
sometimes for us to remember itall. And, Ken, I want to thank
you for being on the programtoday. And I've already gotten
the commitment that you're goingto come back in the future and I
like to call in thosecommitments.
Ken Peach (18:51):
Sam, it's my pleasure. Thank you for the
opportunity. Ken peach of theExecutive
Sam Yates (18:55):
Director of the Health Council of East Central
Florida, a member of the BrevardCommunity Health Care Coalition
and many others around the stateand a friend. I want to thank
you so very, very much for beinghere and we're looking forward
to having you back in the nearfuture. And as we look forward
to having Ken come back in thenear future, I just want to say
(19:17):
Until then I am Sam Yates yourgray-haired host of The Great
American Senior Show. And that'sthe way our program ends.
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