Industry leaders were pleasantly surprised to learn that nursing home operators had exceeded goals for lowering unnecessary antipsychotics use. The level dropped by nearly 20% over a three-year span.
Get smart about brain health
By
Catherine O’Brien, Ph.D
Mar 02, 2015
Activity directors and lifestyle coordinators across the country are trying to find the best solutions for residents who request “brain games” out of a desire to improve their memory and sharpen...
Controversial Medicare auditors group changes name, website
By
John Hall
Mar 02, 2015
A Medicare payment watchdog group saddled with huge case backlogs and heavily criticized for causing delays in resolving reimbursement issues has changed its name and location on the web.
‘Observation status’ provision under further review
By
John Hall
Feb 27, 2015
The American Health Care Association on Thursday applauded a House measure that would inform Medicare beneficiaries of their observation status as hospital inpatient or outpatients. But that might be little...
Study: Shorter hospital stays hike death risk, rehab problems after hip fracture
By
John Hall
Feb 26, 2015
Older patients need longer hospital stays after hip fractures or risk premature death, researchers assert this week in the British Medical Journal.
Virginia, an 87-year-old widow, was admitted to your short-stay facility after hospitalization for angina related to coronary artery disease. Just before discharge, her doctor ordered transdermal nitroglycerin...
CMS’s confusing kick in the teeth
By
James M. Berklan
Feb 23, 2015
One gets the feeling that federal regulators, no matter how proper the official talk went, took a bit of pleasure in sticking it to nursing home operators over rebasing their star ratings the past week...
Officials: More additions and rebasings of nursing home ratings to come
By
James M. Berklan
Feb 23, 2015
Nearly one-third of the nation’s skilled nursing facilities lost a rating star due purely to administrative changes Friday, when regulators also emphasized that more quality measures will be added...
A senior living perspective on ACOs
By
Nikole Jay
Feb 20, 2015
We recently joined an ACO with the hopes of delivering a collaborative health care model that will bridge the gap between physicians, hospitals and skilled nursing providers to offer high-quality coordinated...
Top 10 senior design directions in 2015
By
Dean Maddalena
Feb 19, 2015
As we continue to change the senior living world by creating uniquely designed environments, our team members have put their heads together to come up with a list of must-watch industry trends for 2015.