A new report in the September/October issue of Health Affairs, finds that 60% of blacks in nursing homes ended up in just 10% of the facilities ÛÓ typically ones that had been cited for quality problems. Interestingly the south was the least segregated around this issue. And that is consistent...
Tag: caregiving
House Bill 3162
U.S. House Bill 3162 is getting a lot of publicity these days because it addresses one of the most vulnerable segments of our population – that’s right children. Its noble goal to expand health coverage to children comes at a price. Hidden in the bill is a provision to slash...
Medical Illiteracy
A new study of patients ages 65 and older were more likely to die within six years of receiving written medical instructions than those who easily understood their caregivers, despite the health conditions at the outset. The study was done by a team at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine,...
Medical Tourism in the Nursing Home Industry?
As a health care marketing professional, I have done some overseas work in the area of medical tourism, that is helping overseas hospitals market to U.S. and European patients. Until yesterday, I had never seen the concept applied to nursing homes. This is an interesting article in the Chicago Tribune...
Oscar the Cat
The business of nursing homes and caregiving is a serious one. But you can’t help but pause and maybe find the gallows humor in the following. Oscar, a two-year-old feline was adopted as a kitten and grew up in a third-floor dementia unit at the Steere House Nursing and Rehabilitation...
Nursing Home Watch List
Senator Charles Grassley is proposing a new “watch list” for nursing homes that aren’t meeting federal health and safety standards. “That would include nursing homes that yo-yo in and out of compliance by using grace periods to correct deficiencies, but only then on a temporary basis,” Grassley says. The public...
Long-term Care Insurance
One of the myths I dispel in “Who Moved My Dentures?” is how long-term care is paid for in this country. Forbes had a recent article outlining the issues. I paraphrase it here. Overall demand for long-term care is expected to expand massively over the next 50 years, as the...
Beware the Outspoken Board Member
An outspoken member of the Grady hospital board, an Atlanta facility experiencing a severe money crunch, last week took it upon himself to hand a neighboring county a $4 million bill for Grady services, implying that the hospital would not be in a money crunch if it didn’t have to...
Hospital and Nursing Home Infections
Pennsylvania‘s hospitals and nursing homes would be required to promptly report patient infections to state authorities and take measures to reduce such infections under a bill sent to Gov. Ed Rendell on Saturday. The measure is intended to reduce insurance premiums by requiring more stringent measures to monitor for and...
Nursing Home Demographics Changing
The Kaiser Family Foundation issued a report this month entitled “Changes in Characteristics, Needs, and Payment for Care of Elderly Nursing Home Residents: 1999 to 2004.” The proportion of elderly adults over age 65 in nursing homes has declined over the past two decades, most noticeably in recent years. Some...