Blogs, Guest Columns, Things I Think and Living Leadership
The power of biases
By
Martie Moore
Mar 26, 2018
Establishing processes to utilize root cause analysis for quality improvement is necessary, but it takes discipline. One of the first steps is to challenge your own beliefs about safety and quality failures.
The top 11 questions all operators still have to answer in 2018
By
Derek Pierce
Mar 23, 2018
There are many factors that determine what can or must be done to ensure a facility can survive and ultimately thrive. These 11 questions help to indicate the stability and sustainability of a facility...
Gideon was wrong
By
Gary Tetz
Mar 22, 2018
For every long-term care staff member who wolfs meals at your desk while multitasking on important care-related duties, this is my fervent hope and prayer: that the gruesome and disturbing story I’m...
‘All We Have Is Today’: Music therapy at the end of life
By
Kaitlyn Kelly, MS, MT-BC, LCAT
Mar 21, 2018
How can we provide our residents the compassion and care needed for their physical, emotional, social, and spiritual well-being at the end of life? Bring them, or surround them with, music.
No nurse is an island
By
Jacqueline Vance, RNC, CDONA/LTC
Mar 20, 2018
Let’s face it, healthcare is siloed enough without nurses running around with an “I’ll do it all on my own” attitude. Pride is a toxic condition no nurse can afford to suffer from.
Just the facts? No way. Managing agitation and behaviors in dementia
By
Jean Wendland Porter
Mar 19, 2018
We need to better understand our dementia residents and learn how to enter their world to make them comfortable, maintain their dignity and improve the quality of their lives.
Congress should require more Medicare claim auditing — before and after payment
By
Kristin Walter
Mar 16, 2018
There is a much more efficient solution to reducing Medicare spending than the proposed broad cuts to the program budget: Reduce the billions of dollars in incorrect payments each year.
The who, what and why of CPT Codes
By
Renee Kinder
Mar 15, 2018
My introduction to CPT codes came in May of 2005. A new graduate speech language pathologist, I can still see the memo clearly in my mind posted on a corkboard in the therapy gym. And then came the questions:...
Salus decision offers a golden ticket to some long-term care facilities
By
Nancy Reynolds, Esq.
Mar 14, 2018
With many whistleblower cases ending in multimillion-dollar settlements, providers could easily conclude that the deck was unfairly stacked against them in 2017. But the tide might have turned.
New perspectives on aging and healthcare
By
Eleanor Feldman Barbera, Ph.D.
Mar 13, 2018
Three new books on aging and healthcare recently crossed my desk, each with completely different takes on our industry. Each has merit for anyone involved with senior care.