How can pension institutions get out of the epidemic "swamp"
During the epidemic period, the income of China's private pension institutions fell sharply
During the epidemic prevention and control period, the aged care institutions conduct closed management, on the one hand, they can better protect the elderly, on the other hand, there are problems such as the lack of visits by relatives and the shortage of service personnel.
Increasing operating costs are the most intense, most prominent and stressful challenges faced by pension institutions, and they have even reached a difficult situation.
Retirement institutions are an important part of protecting people's livelihood, foundation, and epidemic prevention and control. Relevant government departments should formulate corresponding policies and regulations from the perspective of long-term effectiveness, prospectiveness, and security, and provide guidance and assistance to pension institutions.
□ Our reporter Zhao Li
On April 24, the Ministry of Civil Affairs held a regular press conference in the second quarter of 2020. Li Banghua, deputy director of the Department of Old Age Services of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, said that the impact of the new coronary pneumonia epidemic on private elderly care institutions is huge. According to a sample survey by the Ministry of Civil Affairs, compared with the same period, the income of private pension institutions decreased by about 20%, the average expenditure increased by 20% to 30%, and the pressure increased sharply.
With the expansion of the epidemic prevention and control scope and the strengthening of prevention and control, closed-end management of pension institutions are facing greater difficulties and challenges.
"On the one hand, during the epidemic prevention and control period, closed management can better protect the elderly; on the other hand, there are also problems such as the lack of visits by relatives and the shortage of service personnel." Li Chao, a professor at China University of Political Science and Law, said.
Li Chao suggested that, by docking with Internet medical platforms and using smart old-age information technology and other measures, it can help old-age institutions to survive the crisis during epidemic prevention and control.
Some industry insiders also pointed out that the old-age care institutions are an important part of the prevention and control of people's livelihood, basics, and epidemic prevention. Therefore, more attention should be paid to the old people in the old-age care institutions. We set off to formulate corresponding policies and regulations, and provide guidance and assistance to pension institutions.
Take multiple measures to strengthen management
Retirement institutions build a strong line of defense
On January 28, the National Health and Health Commission issued the "Notice on Doing a Good Job in the Prevention and Control of New Coronavirus Infection Pneumonia in the Elderly", and issued "Prevention and Control Measures for the Epidemic Situation of Pension Agencies".
On February 7, the Ministry of Civil Affairs issued the "Guidelines for the Prevention and Control of Pneumonia Epidemic Infection of New Coronavirus in Pension Agencies (Second Edition)".
In order to do well in the prevention and control of epidemic situation, pension institutions have adopted closed management. However, since elderly people in elderly care institutions share space, food and equipment, their collective life is more likely to cause outbreaks of infectious diseases. Old people have low immunity and are more likely to get sick and cause death.
On February 16, 24 old people were diagnosed with new coronary pneumonia in Building 60, Shengshui Lake Nursing Home, Jianhua District, Qiqihar City, Heilongjiang Province, and all were treated in the First People's Hospital of Qiqihar City. At the same time, the entire nursing home has entered strict isolation observation, and family members, nursing staff, and management personnel who have been in contact with the nursing home during the same period have also conducted isolation observation.
On February 17, the National Health and Health Commission issued the "Notice on Printing and Distributing Guidelines for the Treatment of Older Aged Aged Aged Aged Aged Patients During the Prevention and Control of New Coronavirus Pneumonia", which clearly requires:
1. Pay close attention to the health of the elderly.
2. If the elderly suffer from physical discomfort or disease onset, the aged care institution shall promptly communicate with the elderly and their family members to reach a consensus. After reaching an agreement, the medical staff in the institution shall dispose of them, call the medical institution for help, call a doctor from the medical institution, call 120 for emergency treatment Or a family member may send a doctor. Conditional or according to the occupancy service agreement, the staff of the pension agency will accompany you to seek medical treatment.
3. The elderly have suspicious symptoms of new coronary pneumonia. Those with a history of epidemiology should not be ruled out. They should be immediately isolated and observed and sent to the doctor for investigation.
4. If a patient is diagnosed as a suspected case or a confirmed case, he should be sent to a designated medical institution for treatment immediately; the pension institution must report to the relevant department in a timely manner, and under the guidance of the local health, civil affairs department Personnel, etc.) carry out investigations and implement 14-day quarantine observation; the organization carries out related work such as complete elimination and standardization of disposal of personal belongings.
5. The elderly and accompanying staff who return to the nursing facility after medical treatment in the medical institution shall be kept in observation for 14 days in isolation, and shall be allowed to move in and work only if there are no abnormalities. If the elderly with new coronary pneumonia need to return to the nursing home after being cured, they should be observed in isolation for 14 days, and they can only move in if there are no abnormalities.
"The performance of China's old-age care agency management during the epidemic prevention and control period is still good." Said Gao Yunxia, assistant dean of the China Public Welfare Research Institute of Beijing Normal University.
Gao Yunxia specifically said that from the government department, the Ministry of Civil Affairs and local civil affairs departments attach great importance to the management of pension institutions, and adopted various measures including inspection, training, and coordination of protective materials, and quickly introduced the epidemic prevention of pension institutions. Guide, local civil affairs departments also held online training meetings. From the perspective of the old-age care institutions themselves, many old-age care institutions have also made great progress in specific management measures, and there have been no large-scale elderly infections, deaths, or the escape of nursing staff similar to those in Western countries.
Gao Yunxia said that since the elderly care institutions especially need to pay attention to the input management, many old care institutions are very strict with visitor management and registration. For the elderly who have left the pension facility, measures such as postponement of return and strict temperature examination are taken. Employees and the elderly are also strictly managed within the pension facility. For example, for the elderly to take meals, adopt a meal-sharing system and send meals to the room. At the same time, strict disinfection of places and appliances.
Operating costs have increased significantly
Pressure on the operation of pension institutions
However, the impact of closed management on pension institutions cannot be ignored. During the epidemic prevention and control period, in addition to the decline in income, new expenditures have also increased significantly over the same period, and the operation of pension institutions is under pressure.
Zhang Jun, director of the Office of the Public Health Research Center of Tsinghua University, and Zhang Weihong, a professor at the School of Medicine and Health Sciences at Ghent University in Belgium, and others, from February 7 to 19, 29 different types of old-age care institutions (including public offices, privately-run and privately-run private) in 14 provinces and cities in Sichuan, Hunan, Guangxi, Guizhou, Yunnan, and Heilongjiang were investigated.
According to the results of the above survey, in the article "Challenges for the Elderly Institutions under the New Coronavirus Pneumonia Epidemic" published in the Journal of the Chinese Academy of Labor Relations, of the 29 elderly institutions under investigation, 51.7% of the elderly institutions had elderly people during the epidemic prevention and control period Returned to hospital, 51.7% of the pension institutions have employees returned to the hospital; 93.1% of the pension institutions have carried out psychological counseling activities; 89.7% of the pension institutions medical services can meet the demand, 69% of the nursing staff can meet the demand; only 37.9% The anti-epidemic materials of the old-age care institutions can meet the demand, 75.9% of the old-age care facilities can meet the demand; the operating costs of 100% of the old-age care institutions increase, and 58.6% of the old-age care institutions receive social support.
The problem of "high operating costs and pressure on continuous operation" appeared in the investigation conclusions of Zhang Jun, Zhang Weihong and others. After surveying 29 old-age care institutions, they found that increasing operating costs is the most intense, most prominent, and most stressful challenge faced by old-age care institutions, and it has even reached an unsustainable situation.
The specific reasons include many aspects: during the closure period, the elderly and employees returning to the hospital need to be isolated in a single room, which increases the space requirement and medical costs; for patients with new coronary pneumonia or employees who cannot return to the hospital in high-incidence areas, the wages are paid as usual. This cost No reduction; due to lack of employees, temporary recruitment of personnel requires increased investment; material rewards for employees who cannot return home during the closure period and the care and assistance given to their families are also additional expenses; prices for epidemic prevention materials and living materials Rising, will inevitably increase costs.
At the same time, Zhang Jun, Zhang Weihong and others found that during the epidemic prevention and control period, the sales work was greatly affected, new beds could not be brought to the market, and newly signed customers could not stay. The operation chain has been greatly affected, and the overall economic income has been greatly reduced. Compared with the increased operating costs and greatly reduced economic income, social assistance is only a shortfall.
Develop special support measures
Smoothly survive the epidemic
Li Banghua said that in order to help old-age care institutions overcome difficulties, the Ministry of Civil Affairs on the one hand promoted the relevant departments to include private-run old-age care institutions in the introduction of taxation, financing, employment and other policy measures to support enterprises, and at the same time guide localities to implement support policies based on actual conditions.
"At present, many places have introduced implementation measures and rules, mainly focusing on raising the standard of operating subsidies. For example, granting six months of operating subsidy funds in advance, reducing rent costs, optimizing credit conditions, carrying out fee reductions, providing material security, etc., help The old-age care institutions can survive the epidemic. With the gradual restoration of the old-age care service, the old-age care institutions can accept the newly admitted elderly and the elderly returning to the hospital. The pressure on the old-age care institutions will gradually ease. "
Zhang Jun, Zhang Weihong and others suggested that the finance, taxation and financial departments should formulate special support measures for the special circumstances of the elderly industry affected by the epidemic. In addition to tax reliefs and rent reliefs issued by the state and localities, additional financial subsidies should be added to pension institutions for extraordinary periods. First, it is recommended to postpone the payment of social insurance for employees by pension institutions; second, the financial department provides subsidies for the high-priced parts of daily medical consumables, which can be subsidized according to the credit status of the pension institutions, and then supplemented after the epidemic; and third, during a special period, you can Provide special subsidies for water, electricity, heating, and gas for pension institutions; Fourth, give post subsidies for nursing staff in post during epidemic prevention and control, and provide credit financing policy support for pension institutions.
In addition, Zhang Jun, Zhang Weihong and others also wrote a proposal to reexamine the policies of pension institutions on the treatment of disabled people. The objects of service provided by pension institutions are seniors, dementia, incapacity, and mobility-impaired persons. To some extent, they are also regarded as disabled persons. They hope that the government will reduce or eliminate the requirement for pension enterprises to arrange the employment of disabled persons, and relieve the disabled persons paid by pension enterprises. Employment security funds reduce the pressure on corporate funds. At the same time, increase the subsidies for elderly care institutions to receive disabled elderly, strengthen the support of medical institutions for disabled and self-care elderly care, and provide convenient on-site guidance and treatment.