While long-term care has long discussed the importance of health data exchanges, it’s rare to be able to give concrete examples of how it makes a patient — or provider’s — life better.
When the caregiving glass is half-empty
By
Elizabeth Newman
Mar 13, 2012
The prevailing wisdom in healthcare is that a family member’s inability to accept a loved one’s impending death or a dire prognosis relates to miscommunication. A new study turns this on its...
What we can learn from POLST data
By
Elizabeth Newman
Nov 30, 2018
On the heels of my colleague James M. Berklan’s discussion about how little we know about our loved ones’ preferences for end-of-life care, there’s a sign of progress in Oregon.
Evaluating ‘Still Alice’
By
Elizabeth Newman
Feb 18, 2015
Much like Amour a few years ago, it’s not unrealistic for those who work or write about long-term care to feel as if the last thing they want to do is spend two hours watching a movie about illness,...
CMS chief deserves credit
By
Elizabeth Newman
Jan 31, 2019
Seema Verma is not messing around. This week the CMS chief deftly walked a fine line between promoting the administration priority of easing regulations while also making clear her agency has no interesting...
Finding illumination on PBJ
By
Elizabeth Newman
Jun 03, 2016
I don’t mind saying that hearing a Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services official discuss Payroll-Based Journaling yesterday was the first time a light bulb went off for me about the new system.
GAO addresses troubling fraud
By
Elizabeth Newman
Jul 27, 2015
It’s always tempting to think reports issued from the Government Accountability Office are written by bureaucrats sharpening pencils and tapping into computer databases.
GAO has good points in how, why antipsychotics are given
By
Elizabeth Newman
Mar 04, 2015
The government recognizes the progress made in nursing homes with reduction of antipsychotics for residents with dementia, but also notes many who live in assisted living are receiving the drugs. It’s...
Cues from canines in dementia research
By
Elizabeth Newman
Feb 12, 2016
There’s debate in the Leis/Newman households over the intelligence of the family basset hound, Daisy Mae. My mother believes Daisy Mae is purely food-driven, rather than intellectually gifted. I...
A fun book about death
By
Elizabeth Newman
Sep 26, 2014
For an industry that spends so much time dealing with death, we know surprisingly little.