StudyHealthcare

This year, the first wave of Baby Boomers will turn 60. And now many people are living longer with good health and vitality, traditional phrases like “senior citizen” and “elderly” seem outdated. Clearly, the old language of aging no longer reflects people’s active lives.

The vast majority of the Boomers are in the pink of health even as they hit the 60 mark.

As a 73-year-old Chinese-American, Parkman Joe of Berkeley, Calif., who divides his time between ballroom dancing with his wife of 40 years and sharpening his speaking skills at his local Toastmasters Club. “In Chinese culture, we venerate the elderly,” Joe said. “I’m hard at work teaching my fellow American septuagenarians to revel in their age of dignity”. Said another,” I’m 74, and I ski, swim and stand on my head in yoga,” said De Vee Lange of San Diego.

This segment alone expects and demands the best health care and moreover, most of them have the resources to pay for them.

Combining medical technology and the human touch, the health care industry administers care around the clock, responding to the needs of millions of people-from newborns to the critically ill.

There are plenty of career opportunities in this arena.

The health care industry consists of the following nine segments:

Hospitals: Hospitals provide complete medical care, ranging from diagnostic services, to surgery, to continuous nursing care. Or the specialized hospitals in treatment of cardiac problems, cancer patients, or children either as an inpatient or outpatient.

Nursing and residential care facilities. Nursing care facilities provide inpatient nursing, rehabilitation, and health-related personal care to those who need continuous nursing care.

Private Practice of physicians. About 37 percent of all health care establishments fall into this industry segment. Physicians and surgeons practice privately or in groups of practitioners who have the same or different specialties Offices of dentist: About 1 out of every 5 health care establishments is a dentist’s office.

Home health care services: Skilled nursing or medical care is sometimes provided in the home under a physician’s supervision and mainly to the elderly and infirm.

Other health practitioners: This segment of the industry includes the offices of chiropractors, optometrists, podiatrists, occupational and physical therapists, psychologists, audiologists, speech-language pathologists, dietitians, and other health practitioners Outpatient care centers. The diverse establishments in this group include kidney dialysis centers, outpatient mental health and substance abuse centers, health maintenance organization medical centers, and freestanding ambulatory surgical and emergency centers.

Other ambulatory health care services. This relatively small industry segment includes ambulance and helicopter transport services, blood and organ banks, and other ambulatory health care services, such as pacemaker monitoring services and smoking cessation programs Medical and diagnostic laboratories. Medical and diagnostic laboratories provide analytic or diagnostic services to the medical profession or directly to patients following a physician’s prescription. Workers may analyze blood, take x rays and computerized tomography scans, or perform other clinical tests.

There is a whole gamut of medical transcription, processing insurance claims and processing where a combination of medical knowledge and business acumen is all that it takes to make a decent living even from the comforts of the home.