The General Accountability Office typically features excellent researchers and writers. But it seems they might have “buried the lead,” as we say in the journalism business, with their latest...
Ready or not, here come the federal star ratings
By
James M. Berklan
Nov 01, 2008
The era of the venerated five-star nursing home could be just around the corner. Then again, it might not.
Pragmatism: Surveyors put away their big sticks
By
James M. Berklan
Aug 09, 2017
One of the biggest stories of the summer easily has been the news that full enforcement of nursing homes’ new survey system will be postponed a year.
Providers just have to look for their bright spots
By
James M. Berklan
May 04, 2016
Long-term care operators have plenty of reasons to recoil and lick their wounds over the course of a year. But sometimes they need to seek the light and resist the “woe is us” mentality.
Nurses again rated tops, but you’d hardly know it
By
James M. Berklan
Jan 03, 2012
Sometimes long-term care nurses feel like step-sisters to their acute-care counterparts. Face it: Hospital nurses usually get the glory.
Star ratings? Give ’em two big thumbs down
By
James M. Berklan
Jan 01, 2009
For a while, it appeared the feds had pulled it off: Nobody was going to be watching the right hand while the left hand fiddled away.
Working the angles as ranking system nears
By
James M. Berklan
Jul 01, 2008
If there’s one thing I learned long ago as a journalist, it’s that the ratings game is a double-edged sword. It doesn’t matter if it’s a high school football team or a movie you’re...
The message is perfectly clear: Too often we aren’t
By
James M. Berklan
Sep 01, 2007
The telephone call came from the doctor’s office. I wasn’t put off too much that an office worker was on the line instead of the doctor or nurse. I was anxious to get the test results.
This freeze plainly brings you a chilling proposition
By
James M. Berklan
May 02, 2011
News that nursing home ratings would be frozen on the federal website for consumer research for six months drew a lot of interest from providers when regulators’ plans were announced this spring....
Secrets to motivating staff as easy as 1-2-3
By
James M. Berklan
Dec 04, 2015
Best-selling author Daniel Pink laid it on the line at the recent LeadingAge annual meeting to vividly illustrate why simple “if-then” reward scenarios — which are suitable for basic tasks...