When I was a kid, I loved getting dressed up for Halloween. I remember especially a clown (funny not scary) costume I got one year. I couldn’t wait to put it on and be transformed into another world....
A futuristic depiction of long-term care
By
John A. Kunz
Jun 14, 2010
What will long-term care look like in the future? A fictional story offers one possibility.
The ACA repeal and its impact on nursing homes
By
Jeffrey M. Levine, M.D., AGSF
May 15, 2017
The public dialogue surrounding repeal of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, has made little mention of the nuts and bolts of the legislation that would be lost when...
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...
Frustrations of a persecuted provider boil over
By
Barry Bortz
Nov 01, 2011
What happens when a government and society create an evil enemy of the state? They begin by calling them monsters, a drain on society that is guilty of heinous crimes, and they use the legal system and...
NYT: You are as much of the problem as the Five-Star system
By
Steven Littlehale
Apr 02, 2021
A recent New York Times article about nursing homes is shameful, lazy journalism. Coupled with the need to sell advertising space, it purposefully perpetuates misunderstandings about nursing homes, caregivers...
Who cares about Five-Star during a pandemic?
By
Steven Littlehale
Jun 15, 2020
Just as the sun continues to rise, the need to objectively monitor and evaluate care in nursing homes has not ceased, nor has the need for providers to continuously work on quality improvement initiatives.
More residents with opioid use disorder are coming. Are we ready?
By
Dina Besirevic
Aug 23, 2023
The 55-year-old female resident with multiple wounds on both of her arms wasn’t this nurse’s favorite. Yes, the nurse had provided wound care over the years to many people who were irritable...
Catch a falling star
By
Kim Lewis
Mar 14, 2016
It is time for all SNFs to embrace that if they are not actively moving forward with a plan to improve their stars, they will likely be find themselves falling behind.
Don’t gamble on cultural competence
By
Renee Kinder
Oct 27, 2022
Culture, it’s a sensitive topic, best not to gamble on this one. Furthermore, culture, cultural awareness, and cultural competence are collectively listed a total of 125 times in the 861 pages of the...