I know that sometimes I must sound like a broken record, but an incident in a Vermont nursing facility underscores why it is so important for nursing personnel to actively manage patient interactions. In Bennington, Vermont an 84-year-old woman suffering from dementia walked into the room of a 58-year-old man. The man was heard yelling, and ...

''We ... have to start asking ourselves uncomfortable questions about the opportunities we provide residents. Why, even in program-rich environments, do only 20-30% of residents regularly participate in offerings? Are we providing what we can-what is logical based on expectations-or what potential residents really need and want? Do we ...

  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'' ...

Reliable information on the quality of nursing homes is hard to come by these days, according to an article in the Los Angeles Times. Currently, a Web site called Nursing Home Compare, which was created by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services in 1998, provides information on nursing homes, from characteristics of residents to ...

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 ...