While conducting a training session last week in Montana, I was lucky enough to have a group of more than 100 staff members from various long-term care departments share some excellent suggestions on how...
Creating good first impressions
By
Ross Skadsberg
Oct 01, 2014
Who doesn’t like fresh clean linens and towels? And who isn’t put off by stains, odors or other indications that they are not? That’s how we all react at home, and it’s a critical...
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.
The sweet irony of a nursing home report card
By
James M. Berklan
Sep 17, 2014
It’s said that politics, among other things, makes for strange bedfellows. Add long-term care quality improvement efforts to the list.
Preventing difficult family situations
Sep 16, 2014
From a psychological perspective, here are some ideas to prevent or reduce disagreements with residents and their family members over care, thereby decreasing the likelihood that a situation will result...
Latest therapy-billing showdown could be ominous sign for long-term care providers
By
James M. Berklan
Sep 10, 2014
Don’t let anyone tell you that long-term care operators don’t know how to read between the lines. They might not have known to fear a McKnight’s Monday news item before it broke, but...
Control issues: helping patients and staff members after a setback
By
Tim Mullaney
Sep 09, 2014
If you’re a leader at a long-term care facility, you’re constantly trying to promote persistence in the face of obstacles. Maybe you’re trying to motivate a patient to progress with therapy...
Finally, some coverage that puts ‘nursing home’ and ‘great’ in the same headline
By
John O'Connor
Sep 08, 2014
By any standard, much of what’s being reported about nursing homes these days could hardly be considered good news. I could point out many examples, but the point is clear: There’s a lot of...
Why the survey system may never be fixed
By
John O'Connor
Sep 05, 2014
Given certain realities about skilled-nursing facility inspections, we should not be wondering why cheating has occurred. Rather, we should be amazed it hasn’t been more rampant.
Minimum wage battle inches closer to long-term care
By
James M. Berklan
Sep 04, 2014
I remember with a sad chuckle the way my German friend Volker felt that American news coverage during one of his visits was too narrowly focused. Where, for example, were the stories about the Iraq-Iran...