Are value-based payments the best CMS can do for nursing home residents? A call for stronger action
By
Marissa Bergh
Nov 04, 2022
America’s nursing homes are in crisis, and the government has been complicit. In the past 2 and a half years, COVID-19 has killed more than 158,000 nursing home residents. These facilities, filled with...
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...
Lots to learn with new Five-Star
By
Steven Littlehale
Jul 22, 2022
On a recent flight, I sat next to an attorney whose principal focus was compliance. It turned out that we were both on our way to speak at events in the same popular Florida conference destination. She...
An unwelcome warning
By
Gary Tetz
Jul 27, 2023
While plodding a narrow, precipitous path high on the flank of Mt. Rainier this week, I saw a father and his young daughter approaching on the trail. She was an adorable child of maybe 4 or 5, all decked...
If only nursing homes were banks
By
Brendan Williams
Mar 17, 2023
I went to high school in Iowa, where 19 nursing homes closed in 2022 alone. Surely, you might think, this has prompted a federal response.It isn’t. Instead, the federal government has chosen to bail...
A word of warning: Beware of staffing ratio violations
By
Neville M. Bilimoria
Nov 21, 2022
We are all waiting to see the possibility of proposed rules over federal minimum staffing ratios in nursing homes. But with possible federal minimum staffing ratios looming, let’s make sure the government...
Google is one of the best places to work. Can nursing homes emulate it?
By
Jasmine Travers, Ph.D., R.N.,
Jan 18, 2023
Staffing shortages in nursing homes are worse now than ever before. In 2019, 588,000 certified nursing assistant (CNA) positions in nursing homes needed to be filled. Since the start of the pandemic, 238,000...
Revamping CMS survey data integration amid regulatory lag in nursing home oversight
By
Steven Littlehale
Dec 08, 2023
The report titled “Uninspected and Neglected” by the majority staff of the US Senate Special Committee on Aging brings attention to a pressing issue: the severe understaffing of inspection agencies...
16 strategies for integrating CNAs into care planning and IDT meetings
By
Aasha Raval
Feb 16, 2024
Given their day-to-day, intimate interaction with residents, certified nursing assistants (CNAs) are uniquely positioned to contribute to care planning and interdisciplinary care team (IDT) meetings, where...
Nursing facilities – A medical crisis in need of a prescription
By
David Chess, MD
Seema Verma
Oct 19, 2022
Nursing facilities have evolved from rest homes to medical facilities over the last 20 years. Patients are sicker, older, have more medical comorbidities and are frailer. They require more assistance with...