CMS Updates Nursing Home Compare Site (Again)
The government’s Nursing Home Compare website now includes more information about surveyor inspection findings and antipsychotic medication usage.
The site is intended to give consumers and others a detailed look at nursing homes’ operations and performances.
The site is continually being tweaked and that is good news for consumers even though providers sometimes question the validity of the data.
The Nursing Home Compare site includes more quality of care information including:åÊ
- pain levels as reported by residents
- the use of physical restraints
- self-reported falls
- pressure ulcer ratesåÊ
- measures of general well-being.
This site is a good starting point when looking to choose a nursing facility whether for short stays or long. But it should not be the only source. Talk to others in your community. Talk to discharge planners. Consult a geriatric care manager. Word of mouth sometimes is better than the data published. Stories are more impactful and insightful.
Study Suggests Association Between Sleep Patterns and Nursing Home Placement (VIDEO)
[embed_youtube”420″ height=”315″ src=”http://www.youtube.com/embed/SMxVn7mhnUA”]
Study Suggests Association Between Sleep Patterns and Nursing Home Placement?
Older women with disturbed and fragmented sleep were three times more likely to be placed in a long-term care facility than elderly women with healthier sleep patterns.
Using statistics from the Study of Osteoporotic Fractures, investigators studied data of older women who wore devices that monitored sleeping patterns for three days. Five years later, they observed that participants who spent the smallest proportion of their time in bed actually sleeping had about three times the odds of being placed in a nursing home.
I’m getting the association here. If you get up during the night and are disoriented, you may have a higher likelihood to fall. And falling in the elderly can lead to broken hips, etc. And that can lead to nursing home stays.
The Johns Hopkins University researchers also observed similar patterns of associations between disturbed sleep and placement in assisted-living facilities.
The findings were published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. The research was supported by the National Institute on Aging and the National Institutes of Health.
Using statistics from the Study of Osteoporotic Fractures, investigators studied data of older women who wore devices that monitored sleeping patterns for three days. Five years later, they observed that participants who spent the smallest proportion of their time in bed actually sleeping had about three times the odds of being placed in a nursing home.
I’m getting the association here. If you get up during the night and are disoriented, you may have a higher likelihood to fall. And falling in the elderly can lead to broken hips, etc. And that can lead to nursing home stays.
The Johns Hopkins University researchers also observed similar patterns of associations between disturbed sleep and placement in assisted-living facilities.
The findings were published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. The research was supported by the National Institute on Aging and the National Institutes of Health.
The importance of getting a good night’s sleep has been increasingly shown as important. We previously blogged about the association between sleep and Alzheimer’s. The lack of sleep may increase brain inflammation and that could be one association with the disease.
In any case, try to improve your sleep habits. Here are some tips.
Assessing Family Caregiver Needs Important (VIDEO)
[embed_youtube”420″ height=”315″ src=”http://www.youtube.com/embed/Uo9gGMMMS44″]
