Senior care needs staffing help, but price gouging isn’t helpful
By
Zach Shamberg
Nov 29, 2021
In mid-September, we at the Pennsylvania Health Care Association (PHCA) reached out to our members, including nursing homes, personal care homes and assisted living communities, to better understand the...
Boosting team resilience
By
Eleanor Feldman Barbera, Ph.D.
Nov 09, 2021
It’s no secret that many long-term care staffers are grappling with feelings of stress and burnout following their pandemic experiences. Burnout affects workers on a personal level, and it can also impact...
Communication and collaboration yields a reduction in behaviors
By
Janean Kinzie
Oct 25, 2021
Reducing antipsychotic medication use in long-term care residents has been a focus for both nursing home operators and practitioners for nearly 10 years since the launch of the Center for Medicare & Medicaid...
Advice from a recovering pessimist
By
Gary Tetz
Sep 30, 2021
Who am I to be giving advice? I have no proficiency in PDPM, MDS, CQI, RUGs, ISNPs or any other intimidating or indecipherable acronym. No one is begging me for my thoughts on staffing or infection control....
Approaching the finish line
By
Jean Wendland Porter
Sep 13, 2021
I went to a wedding this month. Let me rephrase that: I went to a wedding that was a three-day, in-person, 125-attendees, sitting-at-tables-for-eight, extravaganza with family I haven’t seen in...
Put this on repeat: Heroes shine in stormy weather
By
Kimberly Marselas
Sep 08, 2021
Hurricane Ida’s remnants inundated parts of New Jersey with up to 10 inches of rain in violent downpours last Wednesday, but an outpouring of support from the state’s largest private nursing home operator...
Drug diversion, a series: How to deal with it
By
Norris Cunningham
Angela Rinehart
John Myers
Aug 23, 2021
In the first part of this series, we discussed drug diversion: what it is, how to prevent it and how to spot it. This column will focus on how to conduct drug diversion investigations. When drug...
Private equity in the crosshairs
By
Jonathan H. Ferry
Aug 20, 2021
Private equity investors in nursing homes should brace and prepare for an active near-term enforcement environment. Congressional skepticism of private equity involvement in healthcare, developments in...
Requiring the jab or not – Mandatory employee vaccination policies and residential healthcare facilities
By
Heather R. Boshak
Nicole D. Espin
Aug 16, 2021
To vax or not to vax, that is the question. Or more precisely, if you’re an employer, to mandate employee vaccination or not. In a time when discussions of vaccinations are polarized, politicized and...
Vaccination nation
By
Jean Wendland Porter
Aug 11, 2021
Last week an insurance adjuster came over to scope out some storm damage. Anyone who enters my home must be vaccinated or wear a mask (I keep clean masks at the front door. I’m nice like that). If...