Study confirms effectiveness of bivalent COVID booster; AHCA helps spread word
By
Alicia Lasek
Dec 22, 2022
New data and support materials are available for clinicians who want to encourage more residents and staff to get the updated COVID-19 booster shot.
SNFs have made great strides in preventing, treating COVID, docs say
By
Joe Bush
Oct 14, 2022
Nursing facilities are now highly skilled at preventing COVID-19 illness and staving off serious outcomes, said doctors in a panel discussion this week. But pandemic challenges linger.
New treatment, prevention toolkit for clinicians addresses ‘tripledemic’
By
Alicia Lasek
Nov 15, 2022
Five medical societies have created a toolkit designed to help clinicians increase the effectiveness, accessibility and awareness of oral antiviral therapeutics and COVID-19 booster vaccines.
COVID vaccine protects elderly; delivery program has buy-in from nearly all U.S. nursing homes
By
Alicia Lasek
Nov 19, 2020
Fully 99% of skilled nursing facilities nationwide have signed on with the federal Pharmacy Partnership for Long-Term Care Program vaccine delivery initiative, HHS says. The news arrived just as Pfizer...
Vaccination pace to speed up in long-term care; focus is now on uptake, advocate says
By
Alicia Lasek
Jan 07, 2021
Encouraging uptake among staff and residents should be LTC administrators’ goal as the vaccination program ramps up, according to the AHCA / NCAL.
Hit these 3 targets to avoid respiratory outbreaks, U.S. COVID czar tells nursing homes
By
Alicia Lasek
Dec 14, 2022
With two difficult seasons behind them, nursing homes have an opportunity to have “a very different winter,” said White House COVID lead Ashish Jha, MD, at an AHCA/NCAL webinar.
Fauci: U.S. to quickly prioritize the most vulnerable for COVID-19 booster shots
By
Alicia Lasek
Aug 06, 2021
With this week’s COVID-19 cases up 43% and deaths rising, the United States is working to swiftly approve vaccine booster shots for people with weakened immune systems, federal health officials said...
Providers tell CMS it’s ‘decidedly’ the wrong time to toy with PDPM rates
By
Kimberly Marselas
Jun 03, 2021
Providers need more time before the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services would implement any adjustments to PDPM payment rates, operators and associations have told the agency in official comments.
Don’t shelve rapid tests as COVID cases climb, advocates implore nursing homes
By
Alicia Lasek
Nov 03, 2020
Industry advocates say it’s time for facility operators who have not made full use of rapid antigen tests to start doing so — before nursing home deaths begin to spike again. CMS must “take to...
The peculiar puzzle
By
Julie Thorson
Dec 09, 2020
As we are looking for things to do at home, we’ve returned to the “good ol’ days” of jigsaw puzzles. Of course, my husband and son made fun of me as I spent afternoons working on them only to have...