TUESDAY, July 22 (HealthDay News) -- If an influenza pandemic swept through the United States, nursing homes might not be prepared to deal with patient overflow from hospitals, say researchers who looked at more than 400 nursing homes in Michigan and Nebraska to come to this conclusion.

Of those nursing homes, only 23 percent had a specific pandemic influenza plan, 23 percent had a pandemic response incorporated into an overall disaster response plan, and 52 percent had no pandemic plan.

There is a new way of elder care that's increasingly popular with both patients and their families and it's known as Slow Medicine.

I'm sure people working in nursing facilities and assisted living can attest to the amount of ambulances coming in and out on a daily basis, sometimes to take a person in for nothing more than a heavy cold. Why? Because 911 is the only option for many elderly people in facilities or in their homes. There doesn't seem to be a happy medium.

I'm in my 30s. It's too early for me to even think about this.

Or is it?

I'm wondering if anyone has thought about their care when they get too old or too infirm to care for themselves - or if anyone has actually planned it out?

In some societies, there is no question about placing an older loved one in a nursing home. They remain with the family until they die.

But in western societies, we tend not to live with our elderly - we tend to live with our nuclear families/partners/spouses.