As the population of seniors aged 60 and above in China surpasses 350 million, with over 40 million elderly individuals experiencing disabilities, the issue of elderly care has become a “top priority” in the realm of people’s livelihoods. Earlier this year, the “14th Five-Year Plan” explicitly proposed the establishment of a “15-minute community elderly care service circle,” requiring the integration of elderly care services into residents’ daily life scenarios. Consequently, many regions have launched pilot programs for “embedded nursing homes,” breaking the threefold dilemma of traditional nursing homes: “far from home, high costs, and emotional detachment.”
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Practice of Community-Embedded Nursing Homes in Heping Street, Chaoyang District, Beijing
In the Heping Street community of Chaoyang District, Beijing, reporters observed a three-story building transformed into an embedded nursing home. The exterior retains the red brick style of the old community, while the interior is “full of surprises”: on the first floor, a daytime care center is filled with elderly individuals sitting around six dining tables, where staff members are feeding those with mobility issues; the rehabilitation area is equipped with electric nursing beds and rehabilitation devices, with three elderly individuals performing hand exercises under the guidance of a rehabilitation therapist; on the second floor, there are 12 short-term care rooms, each equipped with smart monitoring mattresses that can monitor the elderly’s heart rate and frequency of turning over in real-time, with data directly synced to their children’s phones and the community hospital.
“I used to be afraid that going to a nursing home would mean becoming a ‘forgotten person.’ Now, I can go downstairs to eat and do rehabilitation. My son can come to sit with me every day after work, and on weekends, he can take me home for a couple of days,” said 78-year-old Aunt Zhang, showing the monitoring data on her phone. “Look, I got up twice last night, and the mattress recorded it. My son sent me a message this morning asking if I was feeling unwell.”
The community nursing home charges a “basic fee + personalized services” model, with a basic bed fee of 2,800 yuan per month, which is 30% lower than surrounding traditional nursing homes. The rehabilitation care costs for disabled elderly individuals can also be reimbursed through long-term care insurance. Currently, 89 elderly individuals have long-term residency, with an average of over 200 service visits per day, and the family visitation rate on weekends exceeds 90%.
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Deep Integration of Medical and Elderly Care
In addition to hardware construction, the new policy also emphasizes the deep integration of medical and elderly care. The embedded nursing home in Zhangjiang Community, Pudong, Shanghai, has established a “15-minute emergency green channel” with Pudong Hospital, located 3 kilometers away: when an elderly person experiences a sudden illness, they can press the emergency call button in their room, and the hospital’s emergency team will arrive via a dedicated route. Meanwhile, the nursing staff at the nursing home will prepare the elderly person’s medical history and medication history in advance to save time during rescue.
“Last winter, 82-year-old Grandpa Li suffered a heart attack in the early morning. From the time he called for help to the arrival of the emergency personnel, it only took 12 minutes. Because the medical history was well-prepared, the hospital directly took him to the operating room, ultimately turning a crisis into safety,” the director of the nursing home explained. Since last year, they have successfully handled 23 health risks, achieving a 100% success rate in emergency rescues.
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Exploration Models in Third- and Fourth-Tier Cities
From a regional perspective, third- and fourth-tier cities are also exploring models suitable for their local conditions. In a community in Kunshan, Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, in response to the characteristic that “over 60% of the elderly population are empty nesters,” they have added “intergenerational interaction spaces” in the embedded nursing home, organizing weekly visits from local kindergarten children to accompany the elderly in crafts and performances.
“Every time the children come, the elderly are all smiles, and some even give the children the paper cuttings they made. It’s particularly heartwarming,” said a community staff member.
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Policy Promotion and Future Planning
According to data from the Ministry of Civil Affairs, over 12,000 community embedded elderly care service institutions have been established nationwide this year, covering 30 provinces. By 2027, urban community coverage will be achieved, with rural community coverage exceeding 60%. To ensure the implementation of the policy, the central government has allocated 12 billion yuan in special subsidies for elderly care services this year, focusing on supporting the construction of embedded nursing homes and training nursing staff. It is expected that in the next three years, an additional 500,000 professional elderly care workers will be added.
The core of the new elderly care policy is “to allow the elderly to age with dignity and to relieve the worries of their children.” Embedded nursing homes are a vivid practice of this concept. In the future, with the popularization of smart elderly care devices and the connectivity of cross-regional elderly care services, community elderly care will not only be “convenient at the doorstep” but will also become “a warm protection,” truly achieving “the elderly are cared for, the elderly are supported, the elderly are happy, and the elderly are safe.”