I was driving and listening to the radio last week and I heard an interesting marketing campaign. Apparently, to get people to vacation in Acapulco, the city’s newest campaign to get tourists is to offer...
How I found purpose in hospice nursing
By
Patty Husted
Nov 03, 2023
After working for more than 30 years in the field of hospice nursing – exploring roles across specialties, including patient services, operations and management – I can confidently say that hospice...
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...
AI: Living in the future
By
Jean Wendland Porter
Oct 17, 2023
Artificial intelligence (AI) in healthcare is a rapidly growing field that has the potential to revolutionize the way medical professionals diagnose and treat patients. The use of AI algorithms and machine...
Fasten your seatbelts: It MIGHT be a bumpy ride
By
Steven Littlehale
Oct 13, 2023
It’s been a flurry of activity leading up to the implementation of the “new MDS.” For months our industry has been doing what we do best — rising to the occasion. Countless MDS training sessions,...
How do we offer hope when we can’t see beyond the next shift?
By
Julie Thorson
Oct 11, 2023
Find hidden hope and hold on to it. Hope in healthcare hides in plain sight. Hope is here. It’s unfortunate that sometimes the moments of frustration overtake our soft, but powerful, hopeful...
Armed intruder and active shooter preparedness in LTC facilities
By
Stan Szpytek
Steve Wilder
Oct 09, 2023
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) requires skilled nursing facilities to plan for emergencies and disasters to protect the vulnerable population they serve. The regulations cited in Appendix...
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...