While acetaminophen is generally safe and effective, it can cause liver failure in excess doses. In fact, acetaminophen ...

People frequently ask, "How could I find out if I am going to get Alzheimer's Disease?" 

Scientists are working hard to find ways to detect biomarkers that indicate who is at risk for developing Alzheimer's. The earlier Alzheimer's can be diagnosed, the more effective treatment can be to slow the progression of the disease. A recent Swedish study found biomarkers in cerebrospinal fluid.  ...

The trumpets have already sounded, and the fight is on over health care. The warriors are riding toward the battlefield in DC, and they are armed with their powerpoint slides, their position papers, and of course, their checkbooks.   

On the one side we have the insurance companies who are not eager to compete for health care customers, and on the other, we have the consumers who are tired of having ...

Are you looking for new and innovative ways to train staff? Staff members are regularly faced with challenging situations that require a high level of knowledge and critical thinking. Now, more than ever, it is essential to offer meaningful and effective staff development programs. 

The most meaningful training programs are ones that inspire staff to think differently about the work they do. The ...

When a hospital or a nursing facility hires a physician to work in the capacity of medical director, there is an inherent representation to the families and the public that the facility is vouching for the quality of the doctor. There is a supposition by most residents and their families that the doctor denominated the "medical director" is the person responsible for the quality of medical care provided to residents.  ...

As the Obama administration tackles health care reform, many feel that long-term care issues are being left behind. How will new legislation help your facility?

A few Senators have proposed provisions for long-term care:

-Sens. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., a member of the Senate Finance Committee, and Herb Kohl, D-Wis., chairman of the Senate Special Committee on Aging, co-sponsors of the Home and ...

Click here to read Brian's column "Gerotalk" on the ADVANCE for Long-Term Care Management Web site.

According to AHCA, many long-term care organizations are increasing the levels of services they provide:

• More than 36 companies are adding rehabilitation ...

The American Association of Homes and Services for the Aging has been awarded a contract from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality to ...

The following recommendations are from the American Veterinary Medical Association:

Interdisciplinary cooperation. Successful AAA, AAT and RA programs are inherently interdisciplinary and present a wonderful opportunity for ...

While more than one-third of home health care and nursing home organizations said they expect the government's economic stimulus package to increase use of information technology, another 52% said the stimulus package will have little or no impact on their businesses, according to a recent survey by IVANS Inc. 

Nearly 70% of home health care and nursing home organizations said that electronic health ...

The following is the American Veterinary Medical Association's statement of policy, retrieved from: http://www.avma.org/issues/policy/animal_assisted_guidelines.asp

When the AVMA officially recognized, in 1982, that the human animal bond was important to client and community health, it acknowledged that the human animal bond has ...

For example, clarifying medical orders, not having the right supplies and waiting for patients and lab results are all tasks that waste time, said Susan Sheehy, RN, ...

The International Network for the Prevention of Elder Abuse is sponsoring World Elder Abuse Awareness Day 2009 on June 15. The key objective of World Elder Abuse Awareness Day is to raise awareness about elder abuse, including neglect and mistreatment, throughout the world.

INPEA's ...

The following is a guest blog by Anthony Cirillo:

The Senate Finance Committee has released a report entitled Transforming the Health Care Delivery System: Proposals to Improve Patient Care and Reduce Health Care Costs. A portion of the report addresses long -erm care. Some of the proposed enactments:

• More detail on the ownership of facilities both direct and indirect including ...

Sometimes perception is more important than reality. That is especially true when the perception is that of a newspaper or television reporter, or a witness that the reporter is interviewing.  

In a perfect world, newspapers would report facts and leave the drawing of inferences to their readers. It is not, however, a perfect world. Recently ...

I recently saw this interesting news brief about a shoemaker and a technology company teaming up to develop footwear with a built-in GPS device that could be used to track down wandering seniors.

The developers of the project claim that the technology will provide the location of the individual wearing ...

A little more than a year ago, I wrote an article about integrating palliative care into nursing homes. My research and my sources seemed to agree that end-of-life care wasn't anywhere near where it needed to be in long-term care. In fact, in some long-term care organizations, palliative care had no place ...

The way in which AAT is undertaken depends on the needs and abilities of the individual patient and the limitations of the facility. Dogs are the most common visiting therapy animals, but cats, horses, birds, rabbits, and other domestic pets can be used as long as they are appropriately screened and trained.

For patients who are confined, small animals can be brought to the bed if the patient is willing and ...

Click here to read Brian's column "Gerotalk" on the ADVANCE for Long-Term Care Management Web site.

All too often care provided to many older adults is offered in a manner that may be viewed as positive.  In many long-term care facilities those that provide ...

CMS has issued an interim final rule cutting current fiscal year 2009 payment rates for the long-term care hospital prospective payment system, effective Wednesday, June 3. CMS reports that its analysis of the LTCH final rule for FY 2009, which includes the 15-month period of July 2008 through September 2009, contained an error in the re-weighting of the LTCH payment unit, the LTC-MS-DRG. According ...

While other research has shown Vitamin D may impact mental ability, the findings ...

Nursing assistants in long-term care are at a high risk for injuries due to job related activities. This is why it is vitally important to ensure that staff members are trained in safe lifting, transferring, body mechanics and the skills to prevent people with dementia from becoming aggressive or combative. 

We have found, here at the Alzheimer's Resource Center, that by using dementia based communication ...

Although disputed by scholars, the term "rule of thumb" is said to derive from the idea that a man could beat his wife so long as he used a stick no larger in diameter than his thumb.    While time and colloquial usage have removed the negative association attached to "rule of thumb," it would be nice to think that the law had progressed to a point that it was well recognized that neither spouse should ...