No one could have predicted the challenges COVID-19 has brought to caregivers and the millions of older adults they serve. But the pandemic has exposed major and systemic issues in the older adult care...
Nursing homes and assisted living facilities: Federal scrutiny expected to continue
By
Margaret E. Daum
Kristina Arianina
Callan Smith
Oct 05, 2020
While COVID-19 infections are widespread, the virus disproportionately affects the nation’s most vulnerable populations, including seniors. According to an updated estimate from two healthcare experts,...
Useless PPE befitting federal nursing home neglect
By
Brendan Williams
Jul 29, 2020
According to Paraprofessional Health Institute data, there were 581,000 nursing assistants working in nursing homes in 2018. Their median wage was just $13.38 an hour. Ninety-two percent were women,...
It’s not just vulnerable elders — it’s also vulnerable staff: SNFs need urgent help
By
Robert G. Kramer
Jacquelyn Kung, DrPH, MBA
Mar 24, 2020
This is the time for the government and private leaders to step up. They must be creative and aggressive in immediately taking action to support those on the frontlines.
My advice for life with coronavirus: Don’t forget to breathe
By
Tamar Abell
Mar 16, 2020
We are in crazy times. Actually, it’s a step beyond crazy times. The world has hunkered down and is watching this COVID-19 unravel. Nothing is the same. I never expected to receive a call from a close...
Looking at COVID-19 through the eyes of residents with dementia
By
P.K. Beville
Aug 10, 2020
When I was in graduate school as a single parent, barely making ends meet, I lamented to my mother in loud, ugly sobs that I thought I might be going crazy. I was serious. My mother calmly responded,...
COVID-19 underscores PDPM advantages
By
Bent Philipson
Jan 27, 2021
The efficacy of the Patient-Driven Payment Model has never been clearer than now, in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic. PDPM enabled skilled nursing facilities to see a 9% increase in Medicare reimbursement...
What 2021 has in store on the legal front
By
Neville M. Bilimoria
Jan 20, 2021
Everyone has been celebrating that 2020 is over, and who can blame them? Yet, I can’t help think the legal issues facing long term care in 2020 won’t necessarily go away in 2021. Some of the lingering...
Minimizing the impact of touch starvation in long-term care residents
By
Jennifer Birdsall
Sep 09, 2020
What is touch starvation? Also known as “touch deprivation,” “skin hunger” or “hug deprivation,” touch starvation is what occurs when a person’s exposure to physical contact has been significantly...
Making the loneliness epidemic a mainstream problem, finally
By
Joel Landau
Feb 22, 2021
With the coronavirus pandemic still raging this summer, a senior living facility in North Carolina began posting photos on its Facebook page, each showing a resident holding a sign that listed the person’s...