Across the country, long-term care facilities are vaccinating their staff and residents, with approximately 3.1 million doses delivered as of last week and rates of COVID-19 infection in nursing home residents...
Improve early illness recognition with two simple tools
By
Maryann R. Coletti
Shari Kist
Feb 01, 2021
Early illness recognition is central to managing resident condition change and reducing potentially avoidable hospitalizations. Every staff member, provider and family play a role in identifying when a...
Ethical principles: Respect for those we serve
By
Mary Eleanor Wickersham
Feb 01, 2021
My mother’s name was called, and we left the waiting room to approach the hospital desk to complete paperwork for her outpatient procedure. The clerk immediately began to ask me questions. “What is...
COVID-19 underscores PDPM advantages
By
Bent Philipson
Jan 27, 2021
The efficacy of the Patient-Driven Payment Model has never been clearer than now, in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic. PDPM enabled skilled nursing facilities to see a 9% increase in Medicare reimbursement...
Vaccine conspiracy theories abound
By
Jacqueline Vance, RNC, CDONA/LTC
Jan 26, 2021
OK, so I am majorly stepping up on my soapbox with this one. I refuse to let the anti-vaxxers win. Not when we have a chance to deny this deadly COVID-19 virus hosts. But, yeah, I am trying to understand...
How COVID-19 unmasked ageism
By
Joel Landau
Jan 25, 2021
For every occasion, even a pandemic, there appears to be a hashtag. One used to describe the coronavirus was particularly vile, particularly cruel: #BoomerRemover. There is, tragically, some truth to it,...
Side effects of medicine and hope
By
Jean Wendland Porter
Jan 22, 2021
I got the first step. The first step of the vaccine gave me a headache, a sore arm and the euphoric feeling of hope for release from the restrictions, illness and death that have literally plagued...
Salvation by social media
By
Gary Tetz
Jan 21, 2021
I always thought it was only good for destroying the world, but now I’m here to boldly predict that social media will ultimately save us. After the horrors we’ve been through these past few years...
What 2021 has in store on the legal front
By
Neville M. Bilimoria
Jan 20, 2021
Everyone has been celebrating that 2020 is over, and who can blame them? Yet, I can’t help think the legal issues facing long term care in 2020 won’t necessarily go away in 2021. Some of the lingering...
Addressing vaccine hesitancy
By
Eleanor Feldman Barbera, Ph.D.
Jan 19, 2021
The first of the month, the COVID-19 vaccine arrived at the facility where I work. In the days before its arrival, the “campus” was buzzing with conversation about who was getting the shot, who wasn’t...