The future of long-term care for the chronically ill

Consumers want a range of services and care available for them if and when they may need them. They want long-term care that addresses six areas of concern: community-based services, continuity, coordination, caring, convenience, and cost. To develop new perspectives and new ways of providing the needed long-term services, it is time for health care leaders to work cooperatively with consumers to redesign long-term care, both community-based and institutional. Consumers and consumer advocates, working cooperatively with health care leaders, could reinvent home health care, nursing home care, and other long-term services such as "aging in place" for older people.