[Home medical care using long-term care insurance--centered on home oxygen therapy]

About two-thirds of the patients undergoing home oxygen therapy apply for the Long-term Care Insurance. Most of them are aged 75 or over but the degree of necessity of care is relatively low. Two-thirds of them apply for the insurance for the medical care-related reason, which are twice as many as those apply for the insurance because for the medical care-related reason. Medical cares covered by the Long-term Care Insurance include disease control by the visiting nurse, the assistance for the hospital visit using visiting care or day service/day care and respiratory rehabilitation using day care. Special elderly nursing homes are the good place to accept elderly people living alone. The merit of the Long-term Care Insurance is rapid information supply from various professionals to doctors. Since it is also possible to disseminate the doctor's instruction to each staff, it is possible to carry out disease control at home as if they were admitted to the hospital. For these reasons, the Long-term Care Insurance is extremely effective to prolong the period when patients undergoing oxygen therapy are treated at home or to improve their QOL.