In previous blogs I have spoken about the changing trends in nursing homes. One of the trends I have mentioned is the increasing number of residents in nursing homes who are in the young adult and middle adult ages. This is adding to the complexity of the nursing home environment. Moreover, understanding and implementing different ...

The following is a guest blog from Anthony Cirillo:   Fresh back from the American Health Care Association conference in Long Beach, California, I was struck by the increasing blur between skilled nursing facilities and assisted living facilities. Sessions were devoted to converting nursing home beds to assisted living beds; preparing ...

  From editorial board member Kathleen M Griffin, PhD, National Director, Post Acute and Senior Services, Health Dimensions Group, Scottsdale, Ariz. On March 23, 2010, President Obama signed into law the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA).  PPACA Sections 3401 and 3137 contain a number of provisions affecting ...

Health care reform contains countless details and a variety of effective dates through 2020. Here's a peek at some items that will affect LTC: The provision of the act modifies annual market basket updates and adjusts for productivity under Medicare for inpatient hospital, home health, skilled nursing, hospice, and other Medicare ...

The Advancing Excellence in America’s Nursing Homes Campaign has developed a Consumer Tip Sheet, together with a more comprehensive Consumer Guide, to provide nursing home residents and family members basic information and 10 questions they should be asking to better understand resident care planning, staffing, important care issues and the ...

Are you a CCRC? You may not want to say so, according to a consulting firm that writes: ''We believe that marketing your retirement community as continuing care retirement community may be one of the worst decisions you could ever make. In fact, I would put as much distance between my retirement community and the term ''continuing care ...

 The recruitment period of the Phase 2 Advancing Excellence in America's Nursing Homes Campaign ended at midnight January 31, 2010. The Campaign signed up. 5,860 nursing homes, including 1,132 new participants and 4,728 re-enrollees (now charter members of the Campaign), are now members of the Phase 2 Campaign, reports Carol Benner, ScM. ...

  With Scott Brown's victory in the Massachusetts Senate special election, health care reform looks dramatically different than it did. Democrats have two options, writes Stephanie Condon on CBS News. House Democrats can pass the Senate bill on the condition that Democrats would make revisions to the legislation through a separate ''fix it'' ...

A recent report at HealthReform.gov outlines exactly how health insurance reform, if passed, would strengthen health care for seniors and long-term care residents. ''America's Seniors and Health Insurance Reform: Protecting Coverage and Strengthening Medicare'' outlines, step by step, why the current health care system is ultimately unsustainable ...

A new Penn State program is attempting to give front line health care employees tools to improve efficiencies and cut waste, according to an article on the Penn State Newswire. 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, ...