Continuity and quality of care should matter more than enriching staffing agencies
By
Brendan Williams
Oct 30, 2023
My association administers a long-term care foundation that has given over $1 million in scholarships to workers in New Hampshire long-term care facilities looking to pursue their dreams. Put another...
Falling by the wayside
By
Steven Levenson
Oct 24, 2023
This month’s column invokes several previous columns, one about medications and the other about knowing if we know what we don’t know. A recent medical journal article concluded that falls in...
The hypocrisy of staffing mandates
By
Gary Tetz
Oct 19, 2023
Absorbed as you probably are in fighting through the long-term care staffing crisis while parrying a CMS mandate, I wouldn’t blame you for not noticing. But at airports across America, big planes are...
Staff shortages — what’s the opportunity?
By
Susie Mix
Oct 18, 2023
Amid some good news in healthcare hiring as we recover from the pandemic, staff shortages involve a range of difficult challenges that will persist for years. Among other factors, it’s difficult to find...
It’s me. I’m the problem.
By
Gary Tetz
Oct 05, 2023
Sadly, I didn’t get to the American Health Care Association convention this year. Actually, it’s been a full decade since I last personally attended one of these auspicious gatherings, Now, lest...
Minimum standards or wishful thinking?
By
Irving Stackpole
John Sheridan
Oct 02, 2023
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services notice of proposed rulemaking and the report on which it is based have made the foundational point that more staff in nursing homes will result in better patient...
Be your own data defender
By
Steven Littlehale
Sep 15, 2023
“Well, it’s clear that you’ve never set foot into a nursing home.” I know you’ve thought that while reading a memo from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services or your state agency, taking...
Biden’s regulatory Death Star
By
Brendan Williams
Sep 11, 2023
Despite federal data showing that the COVID-19 pandemic contributed to massive job losses for nursing and residential care facilities – with the workforce 218,200 workers smaller last month...
How do we know if we know what we don’t know?
By
Steven Levenson
Sep 08, 2023
The amount of knowledge and skill involved in complying with the OBRA regulations is monumental. Every topic, from pressure injury prevention to behavior management, has many tec hnical details and clinical...
From talk to action: Moving forward with nursing home quality improvement
By
Isaac Longobardi
Alice Bonner
Jasmine Travers, Ph.D., R.N.,
Aug 30, 2023
This May, the Senate Special Committee on Aging released a report on the shortcomings of nursing home oversight in the U.S. “Uninspected and Neglected” found that nearly one-third of nursing homes...