Healthcare worker, OSHA vaccine mandates headed to Supreme Court
By
Kimberly Marselas
Dec 19, 2021
The immediate fate of a federal vaccine mandate covering most U.S. healthcare workers was in the hands of the Supreme Court this weekend, as the Biden administration sought to reverse an injunction preventing...
The irony of long-term care advocacy
By
Stephen A. Moses
Dec 17, 2021
Long-term care faces a world of hurt. The COVID pandemic worsened the profession’s chronic long-term problems including revenue shortfalls, caregiver shortages and wage pressures. Researchers, operators...
CDC: Boosted nursing home residents 10 times less likely to be infected with COVID-19
By
Alicia Lasek
Dec 17, 2021
The news, delivered by CDC Director Rochelle Walensky, is a bit of cheer amidst other new evidence that COVID-19 cases are increasing among fully vaccinated long-term care residents.
Advice from healthcare providers increases vaccination rates, new study finds
By
Alicia Lasek
Dec 17, 2021
A nudge from a healthcare provider makes a big difference in who is likely to get vaccinated, new evidence reveals.
Pfizer, Moderna vaccines recommended over Johnson & Johnson’s coronavirus shot
By
Alicia Lasek
Dec 17, 2021
Americans should preferably be vaccinated with the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna COVID-19 vaccines due to a rare but serious risk of blood clots and the lesser protection found with the J&J vaccine, CDC says.
Clinical briefs for Friday, Dec. 17
By
Alicia Lasek
Dec 17, 2021
OSHA’s COVID-19 standard set to expire Dec. 21 if action not taken … Falls prevention guidelines need to be more clinically applicable, reviewers say … ‘Amazing’ new clue emerges as to why omicron...
Prepare to comply with CMS mandate, but beware possible modifications, delays: expert
By
Danielle Brown
Dec 16, 2021
A legal expert believes the Jan. 4 deadline to comply with the federal government’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate for healthcare workers will likely have to be pushed back for some Medicare- and Medicaid-certified...
$800M to improve staffing, infection control under latest draft of Build Back Better
By
Danielle Brown
Dec 16, 2021
Nearly $1 billion in grant funding aimed at helping long-term care providers improve wages and benefits, as well as infection control efforts, is on the table in the Senate’s latest version of the Build...
Uncertainty over realistic nursing home census indicative of ‘ongoing economic crisis’
By
James M. Berklan
Dec 16, 2021
The nursing home sector may be far ahead of where it was at this time last year as far as operational freedoms and safety go, but the continuing instability caused by the COVID-19 pandemic is perhaps no...
Pandemic has intensified shift away from SNFs as post-acute care destinations: study
By
Alicia Lasek
Dec 16, 2021
The decrease in discharges to SNFs could have profound implications for the future of post-acute care and may hasten a reckoning about the instability of the nation’s nursing homes, physician researchers...