Month: July 2011

Surroundings symposium

It's not every day you can lock down three of the field's most intriguing and expert sources on aging environments and design to debate best Read More »

Rehab with Heart

The educators (from left): Karla Reese, OT; Barbara Bliss, AD; Theresa Schultz, RN, DCD; and Sue Kocin, RD, LD. Theresa Schultz is Read More »

Aligning benefits for dual eligibles

Directed by provisions of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), the new health reform law, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has launched a Read More »

ACOs update: Three likely payments

And now we wait. The comment period for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services' proposed rules on Read More »

LTC resources on demand

Long-Term Living's July issue historically has focused on business-building resources for the LTC industry, encompassing facilities, resident care Read More »

Technology takes off in long-term care

Until recent years, “technology” and “long-term care” weren't often used in the same sentence. That may be a slight exaggeration, but one would be hard-pressed to argue against the perception that the LTC industry is somewhat of a late adaptor of technological advancements. Read More »

LTC Showroom

LED LIGHTING SYSTEM Loox LED (light-emitting diode) system from Häfele America Company, uses a universal worldwide power system where switches, Read More »

Leads aplenty on the Web

When one of the nation's largest senior living companies is getting 25 percent of its leads from online senior placement and other referral Read More »

Power in purchasing

Group purchasing organizations (GPOs) have been around for a long time. The first healthcare GPO for hospitals was created in 1910 by the Hospital Read More »

Prepare for a rise in Alzheimer’s and dementia

Recently, the National Institute on Aging and the Alzheimer's Association released new guidelines for Read More »

Marketing Assisted Living Today

Many assisted living facilities are experiencing higher vacancies since the economy and the housing market crashed in 2008. Long considered a Read More »

Seniors get a boost from the Girl Scouts

In Holtsville, New York, many churches, along with community civic and social organizations, have found extra closet space thanks to Girl Scout Troop Read More »

Study: Higher pressure ulcer rates for blacks related to site of care

A new study shows that among nursing home residents at high risk for pressure ulcers, black residents had higher prevalence rates than white Read More »

Investment in frontline staff pays off for providers

On Orchard Cove’s skilled-nursing floor, urinary tract infections and pressure ulcers have become rare occurrences and medication usage is down. Read More »

Obama’s debt ceiling salvo: Social Security checks ‘not guaranteed’

The national debt ceiling debate escalated yesterday when President Obama, in a televised interview on CBS News, said that he can’t ensure that Read More »

Is long-term care ready for LEDs?

For the upcoming July 2011 issue of Long-Term Living, we asked three well known senior living designers to debate the pros and cons of various Read More »

Virtual reality aids Parkinson’s rehab exercises

Virtual reality and physical reality exercises can be used to increase the movement speed of a person with Parkinson’s disease, improving his or her Read More »

OIG urges CMS to take action in light of skilled nursing overpayments

The Office of the Inspector General (OIG) is planning to review SNF billing at the end of the fiscal year and is imploring the Centers for Medicare & Read More »

Determined to make a difference in skilled nursing

Theresa Schultz is one of those people you feel like you’ve known for years within minutes of meeting her. When I and Long-Term Living editors Sandi Read More »

Waiting for assistance in the nursing home

Early Saturday evening I was surprised that I had a few interesting cable TV programs to choose from. The original Susan Boyle special was on and I Read More »

CMS initiative looks to reduce hospitalizations among nursing home residents

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced last Friday a new demonstration program to help states reduce the number of preventable Read More »

Fall prevention strategies under scrutiny

How about this for a bold statement: Patient falls in hospital settings should not be considered preventable. That’s the conclusion of a recent Read More »

Study: Electronic prescriptions as error-filled as manual ones

Electronic prescriptions have as many errors as handwritten prescriptions, according to a new study published in the Journal of the American Medical Read More »

Governors say states are owed $4 billion for Medicare errors

Past efforts made to correct errors by the Social Security Administration might have cost state Medicaid programs $4 billion—money that the federal Read More »

Study: Minorities lead nursing home population growth

A rising proportion of racial and ethnic minorities in the U.S. nursing home population is attributed to factors beyond simple demographic changes, Read More »

Sweating out proposed Medicare/Medicaid cuts

The heat is on both literally and figuratively as we move into the height of summer. Healthcare providers have sweated out weeks of speculation over Read More »

CMS demonstration nets home health agencies $15 million in shared savings

More than 100 home health agencies that participated in the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS) Home Health Pay for Performance (HHP4P) Read More »

First quarter regional occupancy highlights

In 1Q11, overall nursing care occupancy was 88.5 percent, which is an improvement of 10 basis points from the prior quarter. Occupancy held up Read More »

Renewed resident activities

A couple of weeks ago I heard some staff members talk about working at a hospital. They said there they would be assured an "outcome" for their work. Read More »