Making It Harder To Keep Nursing Homes Honest

The Bush administration shut off a source of information last fall about abuse and neglect in long-term care facilities. The rule designates state inspectors and Medicare and Medicaid contractors as federal employees. The new rule, which was issued in September, generally prohibits state health departments and contractors from participating in...

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Make the Call for Nursing Home Reform

On March 4, 2009, the Senate Aging Committee will hold a hearing addressing the financing of long-term services and supports. This is a unique platform to tell our legislators that long-term services and supports must be included in health care reform legislation. I have joined a coalition that is working...

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Voice Activated Resident Charting Saves Lives, Captures Revenue

The Villa St. Joseph, a nursing home near Pittsburgh, PA has introduced a voice activated computer system called AccuNurse that documents in real time all of the care being provided. Gone are charting specific patient interactions sometimes hours after they occurred. That only increases the likelihood of errors and omissions....

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Medication Abuse in a Nursing Home

Three employees of a California nursing home are in police custody accused of forcibly administrating psychotropic drugs to patients to make them easier for staff to control. One, a former director of nursing, ordered that dementia patients be given high doses of the mood-altering drugs not as part of their...

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Alzheimer’s Inherited?

Boston University School of Medicine has conducted a study that might suggest a parental link for Alzheimer’s. While the study has not been fully vetted, it is worth reading. It probably makes a case for mapping your genome though it is unclear what you could do about it if you...

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Be Aware the Legal Structure of Nursing Homes

We know we live in a litigious society and that one of the costs gobbling up healthcare dollars is liability and malpractice insurance. Some long term care operators simply can not afford it. So they improvise making it much harder for you to sue if something happens to a loved...

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Resident Experience Part Two

I have contended that not every nursing facility can become a Green House, small homes that cater to residents where the home is primary and nursing facility secondary in the equation. I believe that traditional individual facilities can enhance the experience themselves. The new GablesCareCenter at the Boutwells Landing senior...

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Asian Perspectives on Aging

I came across an interesting article on an Asian viewpoint of nursing homes. We often think of the Asian culture as one who takes care of their elders. Some of that is shifting as two family incomes come more into play and their societal life gets as hectic as those...

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