There’s never been a newsier time in the world of senior care. Numerous huge issues and personalities have shaped the last 12 months. But there’s one clear choice for who should be “The...
Evaluating extensive versus moderate assist
By
Renee Kinder
Aug 17, 2015
Step one for improving accuracy for Section G ADL coding is to improve understanding between the language MDS uses to define levels of function and impairment in comparison to how rehab teams and nursing...
An aerial wish
By
Jack York
Aug 11, 2014
Thanks to Brookdale Senior Living, Wish of a Lifetime, and a donation from our company (It’s Never 2 Late), it was my honor to float aimlessly over Ohio with Warren Jackson, age 93, and his three...
The conversation no one wants to have
By
Barbara Ivanko
Nov 22, 2013
Studies show that while people across the country are increasingly embracing hospice, many receive hospice care too late, including sometimes in the last three days of life. By accessing hospice care sooner,...
Community connections and quarters: How one nursing home responded to a 45-day water crisis
By
Tim Mullaney
Apr 08, 2014
In its forthcoming emergency preparedness guidelines for long-term care facilities, maybe the government should include this directive: The facility is to cultivate strong relationships with area businesses...
Will the MDS ever go away?
By
Maria Arellano, MS, RN
Oct 19, 2012
As the industry moves from fee-for-service to the episodic world of care, much emphasis has been placed on understanding how payment systems work over the past couple of decades. This view evaluates outcomes...
A needle, a patient and a tube: The challenge of phlebotomy
By
Gary Milburn, Ph.D.
Oct 02, 2013
It is commonly accepted that over 70% of all medical decisions are based on laboratory results and now more than ever those results are used to make rehospitalization decisions. To provide a closer look...
Death with dignity: dying to die
By
Alan C. Horowitz, Esq., RN
Feb 21, 2018
The issue of physician aid in dying is controversial at best and implicates the intersection of law, medicine and ethics. While the law allows for physician aid in dying in a handful of states, not all...
What ‘do everything’ can mean
By
Angelo E. Volandes, M.D.
Feb 04, 2015
The day I met Mrs. Bartlett at my hospital, she was an 89-year-old long-stay nursing home resident with moderate-to-severe dementia who was being transferred to my hospitalist service for shortness of...
This American Life … and death: Superb shows about hospice
By
Tim Mullaney
Apr 29, 2014
A few months after Pattie Burnham started working as a hospice nurse, she forgot the name of the president of the United States. That’s normal, her boss told her.