How LTC facilities can use communication technology to avoid compliance traps
By
Gary Hamilton
Frances Carroll
Apr 02, 2024
“If it is not documented, it is not done” is a fundamental rule of healthcare. For those who work in long-term care (LTC) and skilled nursing, a relevant version of this rule is, “If a staff member...
Inventive languages
By
Jacqueline Vance, RNC, CDONA/LTC
Nov 08, 2022
My family tells me that when I was a very little girl, I apparently had a proclivity for creating my own language that only my older sister could interpret. It took some coaching but eventually I adapted...
Staffing challenges: A time to look inward
By
Steven Littlehale
Sep 16, 2022
As the Biden administration marches toward some type of minimum staffing requirement for nursing homes, it’s easy for providers to feel like helpless, angry victims. Even as a proponent of acuity-based...
Maintaining your COVID-19 library of materials
By
Jacquelyn Smith Clarke
Feb 07, 2022
As the pandemic progresses, we have become used to the constant upending of what we thought we once knew. From PPE guidance to testing and vaccines, the amount of information and how quickly it changes...
Watching out for the hungry HIPAA
By
Elizabeth Newman
Jan 03, 2018
Amid all the focus on new rules for nursing homes, we can’t forget the old ones and the need to audit, train and document.
Avoid lawsuits and protect licenses
By
David Barmak Esq., and Betty Frandsen, MHA, NHA, RN
Feb 06, 2017
Document, document, document! Those words echo through the halls in a myriad of places − from the firing of an employee for cause, to substantiating or absolving an accusation of abuse or wrongful act.
Also in the News for Friday, March 27
Mar 27, 2015
Documentation the biggest challenge to providers, survey shows … Middle-age hip replacements nearly doublefrom 2002-2011 … Even LTC insurers think product is too expensive … Exercise,...
LTC nurse could face 4 years in prison for alleged morphine mistake, cover-up
By
Tim Mullaney
Sep 05, 2014
A nurse has been indicted for allegedly administering morphine to a nursing home resident by mistake and covering up her error while the resident experienced a health emergency, New York Attorney General...
Ready, set … Just kidding! (ICD-10 adventures continue)
By
Shelly Mesure, MS, OTR/L
Apr 08, 2014
Is that how everyone is feeling about the ICD-10 delays? Well, that’s how I’m feeling. We almost got within the six-month window for implementation. Just when we were all geared up and ready...
Ask the legal expert … about antipsychotic medication liability
By
John Durso
Dec 01, 2013
I’m an administrator who’s read all of this stuff about overuse of antipsychotics on long-term care residents. I like and trust my director of nursing, medical director and clinical staff —...