Group eyes nationwide rollout of nursing home quality improvement program
By
Kristen Fischer
Jun 25, 2024
A new program improves the quality of care and lowers avoidable hospitalizations in Missouri nursing homes. The program has worked so well that policymakers are trying to expand it to every state.
Report: Nursing homes’ reliance on agency staffing during pandemic resulted in hits to bottom lines
By
Kristen Fischer
Aug 03, 2023
It’s no secret that nursing homes dealt with challenges in staffing from COVID-19. A study released last week in JAMA Network Open aimed to better understand how nursing home administrators thought about...
COVID-19 outbreaks worsened nursing home staffing shortages: study
By
John Roszkowski
Aug 01, 2022
Nursing homes that had severe COVID-19 outbreaks experienced significant staffing losses during and after the outbreaks. Emergency staffing plans need to be developed for future outbreaks including potentially...
Nursing home providers help to design, refine facility IP program
By
Alicia Lasek
Apr 26, 2023
In partnership with providers, an infection control peer coaching program has been updated to improve its utility amid competing facility priorities and staffing shortages.
Pandemic resulted in nurses shifting from hospitals to other settings, study finds
By
Kristen Fischer
Feb 22, 2024
A shortage of registered nurses in the first two years of the pandemic was probably temporary, according to a new report. That’s because the workforce rebounded in 2022 and 2023, the authors said. Even...
To quarantine or not? CDC’s post-vaccine guidance for exposed workers gives nod to staff shortages
By
Alicia Lasek
Feb 12, 2021
Fully vaccinated individuals may now skip quarantine after exposure to an infected person. But that doesn’t go for healthcare workers in facility settings — except as a last option.
Nursing home COVID cases rise four-fold in surge states, resident deaths double, data shows
By
Alicia Lasek
Nov 10, 2020
The rising weekly case count includes residents and staff in 20 states. Meanwhile, about one in six nursing homes did not report testing staff members in the prior week.
Coronavirus rates drop 96% in nursing homes, but some see first-ever cases in new year
By
Alicia Lasek
Mar 31, 2021
More than 430 nursing homes saw their first-ever COVID cases in early 2021, evidence that continued infection control measures are needed, and despite phenomenal declines in facility rates, says the U.S....
Nursing home COVID-19 infections quadruple as booster rate slows
By
Alicia Lasek (f3)
Jun 21, 2022
An AARP analysis shows a sharp uptick in infections between mid-April and mid-May, while residents’ booster shots have slowed to a trickle.
‘How good are those vaccines now?’ Mixed AARP nursing home report prompts a thorny question
By
Alicia Lasek
Nov 15, 2021
A new AARP report shows encouraging trends in COVID-19 cases and vaccinations. But the steady rate of resident deaths raises concerns for the future as vaccine efficacy wanes, analysts say.