While electronic health records systems are ubiquitous in primary, acute and specialty care settings, long-term care facilities are still lagging in adoption. The biggest reason for the disparity in adoption is that LTPACs weren’t eligible to participate in Medicare and Medicaid incentive programs to adopt electronic health records. But it’s critical that LTPACs be able…
As we reexamine safety protocols to help slow the spread of COVID-19 in long-term care, one building system getting a closer look is ventilation. Some LTC facilities managers now realize that the air filtration systems in their buildings do not adequately remove pathogens. Installed filters typically have a Minimum Efficiency Reporting Value, or MERV, of…
After two years spent developing and launching a service to assist prescribers and long-term care pharmacies complete controlled substance orders using a mobile device, I was surprised to hear the response, “We cannot use this. Faxed orders are banned or about to be banned.” Wait, what? Faxing is a technology that dates to the 1800s. After…
As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, 2020 was the most challenging year in the history of the senior living industry. Health and safety has been the main focus of leaders as they grapple with the deadly rate of virus infections and its impact on the lives of millions of older adults, staff and their…
In skilled nursing facilities, there is a high demand for data that can be leveraged to improve clinical and financial outcomes. The COVID-19 pandemic has reinforced the idea that caregivers’ time is precious and best spent with patients rather than on added distractions or administrative responsibilities. The need to work smarter, not harder, has turned…
Nursing home staff, administrators and frontline caregivers have worked tirelessly to prevent and manage the pandemic. Despite their heroic efforts, over 101,000 seniors and 750 employees had died of COVID-19 as of Dec. 1, 2020. COVID-19 is a wake-up call to the entire skilled nursing and LTC industry. Organizations must strategically and systematically rethink their…
In the early months of the pandemic, much of the research on COVID-19 focused on the manner in which the disease affected respiratory function, i.e., the capacity to breathe. Over the course of the last seven months, as more data has become available, it has become clear that COVID-19 adversely affects cognition (including capacity to…
Caregiving is America’s largest profession and the job role with the widest gap between supply and demand. Four and a half million long-term care workers support individuals in institutions and home-based settings across the United States. The Bureau of Labor Statistics forecasted a steep rise in that figure because of demographic trends even before the…
For providers across the long-term post-acute care continuum, 2021 budget planning should be top of mind these days. Developing accurate budgets is critical for making informed purchasing decisions. Likewise, it’s essential in analyzing financial performance. This was a year of unprecedented challenges for most LTPAC organizations, and 2021 could follow a similar trajectory in many…
Long-term care communities have been on the front line of the COVID-19 pandemic from the beginning, and they have the most at stake in finding ways to detect a case — or an outbreak — immediately, effectively and cost-efficiently. For LTCs, the focus has been on enhanced cleaning measures and human diagnostic testing mandated and funded by…
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