The BIG Picture: understanding why significant healthcare reform is unlikely to happen
By
John O'Connor
Jun 01, 2009
Despite a general dissatisfaction with Medicare and Medicaid rates, providers have mostly benefited from the way things are, at least as far as payments are concerned. Why would they want to mess with...
Care improving in key areas, report asserts
By
John O'Connor
Nov 01, 2009
Nursing home quality improvement efforts have largely succeeded in recent years, according to a report that was jointly released by the American Health Care Association and the Alliance for Quality Nursing...
The BIG Picture: Giving you extra credit
By
John O'Connor
Oct 01, 2010
In the months ahead, we’ll be looking to offer continuing education in new and different ways.
Moderna’s vaccine highly effective against COVID-19: FDA review
By
John O'Connor
Dec 16, 2020
Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine is 94% effective in preventing symptomatic illness, according to information released Tuesday. The initial review’s findings appear to set the table for federal authorization...
Feds unveil plan to improve tech safety via partnerships
By
John O'Connor
Aug 01, 2013
Healthcare technology can greatly help or harm the care residents receive. Recognizing this dichotomy, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) has issued a health...
Shame is powerful motivator
By
John O'Connor
Sep 01, 2007
About a decade ago, I wrote a controversial column that offended some readers. In it, I suggested the industry start policing itself by identifying and reprimanding the bad actors in this field, lest the...
Ask the legal expert … about leave-of-absence mistakes
By
John O'Connor
Oct 01, 2013
How can we avoid some of the most common leave-of-absence mistakes administrators/owners make?
OIG report seeks increased safeguards in the EHR arena
By
John O'Connor
Jan 02, 2013
The move to electronic health records recently had a red flag thrown in front of it by a report from the Office of Inspector General of the Department of Health and Human Services.
No way to fix staffing
By
John O'Connor
Jan 01, 2014
It’s no secret that our nation’s long-term care facilities need additional caregivers. More than 43,000 direct care staff positions remain unfilled, according to figures from the American Health...
Heenan: E-learning powerful tool
By
John O'Connor
May 09, 2007
As Diversicare’s director of training, Ted Heenan has become an expert on staff-training challenges. All too often, he says, it consists of herding bored people into a room to hear information that...