Guest Columns
An oft-repeated canard that bedevils advocates for facility-based care is the assertion, by an organization that peddles Medicare insurance products, that “90% of people don’t want to be in a nursing home.” We live in a post-factual world, where even facts are dismissed as “Fake News,” and people consume information through the biased filters of…
To better ensure consumers and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) have access to drug pricing information relevant to seniors residing in long term care facilities, we believe the Senate Finance Committee-introduced Prescription Drug Pricing Reduction Act (PDPRA) and the Lower Cost, More Cures Act of 2019 (S. 3129/H.R. 19), introduced by Sen. Mike Crapo (R-ID) and…
A generalization: Most groups, such as seniors living in retirement communities, have within them social, professional territories. That is, there is an assumption that groups, clusters, committees, political parties, leaders, followers and hundreds of other societal gatherings have concerted purposes, interests and beliefs — like grains in a silo. Take a metaphorical leap: a…
Sometimes a writer has to take a principled stand no matter how oxymoronic that might sound. That’s why today, without fear of reprisal, I want to talk about typos.
Have you taken steps to protect your long-term care facility from the novel coronavirus? If not, there’s no time to waste. Novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) has been sweeping across the globe since being first identified in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China. As of Sunday, the World Health Organization (WHO) tracked 14,557 confirmed cases worldwide and eight in the…
Now that the calendar has flipped to a new year, millions of Americans have made resolutions to better themselves in the year ahead. New Year’s resolutions are not a modern phenomenon and actually date back 4,000 years ago to the Babylonian empire, when people would mark the start of the agrarian year by making sacrifices…
This may be the year for breakthroughs in Alzheimer’s care and treatment.
It’s time to give purchasing agents more room to operate in long-term care. Here’s why, and now here’s a group that can help their efforts.
Distressing and harmful resident-to-resident incidents is one of the most prevalent and concerning phenomena in nursing homes. Several research studies have shown that these incidents can lead to serious physical injuries and deaths of residents. Direct care staff and managers of nursing homes work hard on a daily basis to meet residents varied physical and emotional needs, prevent…
You need to read this for at least one very solid reason: The need for transparency in caregiving will not diminish, nor will the demand decline from families for answers and partnership.
Short-term stay or respite care offers a great solution for seniors who are recovering from a hospital visit, surgery or other medical issue. While short-term rehabilitation is effective in addressing the acute medical issue that landed a senior there, there is a constant struggle to ensure they receive the support needed after they return home —because that support means…
As every practitioner and advocate within our broader long-term care space knows, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to break through the noise when it comes to engaging with and educating policymakers about the intrinsic value the long-term care community provides.
You know how sometimes you’re asked to speak on a subject with which you have years of experience? Then during your research you discover a wormhole that’s so much deeper and more concerning that you had previously thought when you agreed to take on this engagement? I do.
At a time when most county nursing homes are being bought by private organizations, our nursing home in Upstate New York has found a way to buck the trend and is receiving tremendous support from local government. Shaker Place Rehabilitation and Nursing Center, formerly Albany County Nursing Home, is currently undergoing an $80 million renovation…
Could this be your facility or one that you know? A marketing consultant visited a skilled nursing facility recently and was set back by the response she received. This was her experience: “To get inside, she had to walk along a circle drive. As she walked along the drive, she passed several residents sitting in…
“If I could work my will, every idiot who goes about with ‘Reimbursement Reform’ on their lips would be boiled in their own pudding and buried with a stake of holly through their heart!” Ebenezer Scrooge hissed after the conclusion of a CMS Open Door Forum.
I thought I was prepared to face the loss of a thousand moments. I was not. I am not.
Skilled nursing providers will want to stay attentive, so they don’t find themselves in the same kind of controversy their assisted-living counterparts now are experiencing.
With Oct. 1 now in the rearview mirror, providers in the long-term care (LTC) industry, including nursing homes and skilled nursing facilities (SNFs), must adapt to new regulations that impact their Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements. Providers across the U.S. have spent several months preparing for the implementation of the Patient Driven Payment Model (PDPM), created…
I want us to be at the front of the line in advancing to a higher quality of care for these residents. We’re missing the boat, we really are.
