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Nebraska Ranks 14th in Senior Healthcare

The state of Nebraska ranks 14th for senior healthcare.  That’s according to a new reportissued by United Health Foundation.

Dr. Daniel Clute is the Market Medical Director for United Healthcare in Nebraska and Western Iowa. 

He says the report is a comprehensive analysis and the first of its kind to look at senior healthcare across the nation. 

Dr. Clute says there is a high percentage of Nebraskans 65 and older who volunteer, nursing home beds across the state are rated highly at 4 or 5 starts and there is a low prevalence of food insecurity among seniors. 

Despite the positives in the report, he says there are some challenges facing the state.

"There was a lower percentage of social support, where people felt they weren’t getting the emotional support they needed.  This is looking across the state, but there’s also a general shortage of geriatricians than you would expect for the population.”

Dr. Clute says the report also indicates that the availability of home health care workers was lower than expected.