Administration

A nursing home’s ‘secret’ to making list of ‘Best Nursing Homes’

Bethany Health Care Center, Framingham, Mass., has made U.S. News & World Report's annual list of top-rated nursing homes three times. Its administrator explains the simple formula for her community's success. Read More »

Poll: Most voters oppose reducing Medicare funding for SNF care

The Alliance for Quality Nursing Home Care, which announced the poll's findings, intends to broadcast the results “on Capitol Hill and in states across the nation.” Read More »

How to send positive messages to residents and families

For this to happen, your customer service efforts need to be proactive rather than reactive. Anticipate your customer's needs and take steps to solve any problems before they arise. Read More »

PHI’s Dawson to step down; Sturgeon to take helm

Dawson, PHI’s founding president, will continue to serve on the PHI staff in a newly created position of “strategic advisor.” Read More »

Does your building have an unsafe ‘open door’ policy?

It’s a bit staggering to think about how many residents, employees and families have had access to duplicate keys over the years to your facilities. Have you ever wondered where keys end up when someone claims they are lost? Read More »

The impact of ‘never events’ on post-acute care

The current Medicare payment policy for hospital “never events” has created risks for unassuming post-acute providers. Nursing homes, assisted living facilities and CCRCs need to prepare for the coming impact. Read More »

Assisted living marketing directors see salary increase

An analysis of those reporting bonuses for director of marketing showed an average annual salary of $46,872, with an average bonus of $9,354, or 19.96 percent of salary. Read More »

Kitchen safety in long-term care

From a safety and risk perspective, the kitchen provides us with an immediate opportunity to develop a workforce that is “cultured” to prevent potential hazards and losses. Deviation from procedures is usually when an incident occurs. Read More »

Hospitality and leadership in the dining room

Frontline servers are emerging leaders within senior care communities. Forward-thinking administrators recognize the value of arming their staffs with targeted hospitality training. Read More »

3 steps to starting your own senior care internship program

An internship program is a great way to find qualified staff, raise resident morale, generate new ideas and give back to the community by helping college students. The key is fostering positive relationships with local colleges. Read More »

5 competencies of successful sales/marketing professionals

The simple truth is that successful sales and marketing professionals are made, not born. Here are the five areas of skill and knowledge your team members must have to be successful in healthcare sales and marketing. Read More »

LTC mergers, acquisitions spike 39 percent in 2011

Long-term care merger and acquisition activity rose 39 percent in 2011, while total dollar volume in spending rose to $16.3 billion. Read More »

5 reasons why you should run a senior care internship program

Find qualified staff, raise resident morale, generate new ideas, market your community relations, save money—it's a no-brainer, really. Just ask yourself: "Can we start an internship program of our own?" Read More »

Growth in for-profit nursing home jobs outpaces nonprofits, report finds

For-profit nursing home providers experienced job growth by 2.3 percent from 2000 to 2010, while nonprofits experienced job growth by only 1.3 percent, the report found. Read More »

Reasons to remain a nursing home resident

At 63 years old, I am not interested in moving back into the community. The anxiety I have from living on my own years ago is still present, and I do not want to go back to being that desperate to live independently. Read More »

The essential components of preparedness and compliance

Preparedness and safety are not to be ignored. They determine how successfully an adverse event may be mitigated. And in long-term care communities, disaster training and drills are required. Read More »

Thousands of stolen pain pills at Okla. nursing home lead to investigation of employees

The four individuals under investigation were fired from Callaway Nursing Home when drug discrepancies were discovered in residents' medical charts. Read More »

5 secrets your line staff doesn’t want you to know

Do you wish you could be a fly on the wall, observing without changing the behavior of the people you’re watching? Wonder no more, as this nursing home psychologist reveals the secrets they don’t want you to know. Read More »

Abandon ‘the help’ and recognize your staff

Beyond verbal communication, I wondered how else we may be devaluing our team members who work so closely with residents. Consider these questions about the design of your environments—and the messages they send to employees. Read More »

Vacuuming protects indoor air quality

Are your hard-surface floors making you—and your residents—sick? Brush up on these current best practices for cleanliness and maintenance with January's Focus On. Read More »

Strive for perfection, settle for excellence

The meek young girl greeted surveyors with a megawatt smile and proclaimed, “Chris took all of the residents camping. They’ll be back on Monday.” Read More »

One-on-one with Craig T. Fukushima, NHA, Partner, The Fox Group

In this first of a regular monthly feature of conversations with LTC industry executives, Craig Fukushima of The Fox Group weighs in on the outlook for senior housing development, capital availability and the influence of baby boomers on senior care and marketing efforts. Read More »

Memory care drives long-term care development

LTC developers and operators gathered last Sunday to learn the latest business models, demographics and behavioral considerations for managing dementia, as well as to explore opportunities to expand or add memory care to their communities. Read More »

Improving the image of LTC nursing

AANAC's Diane Carter asks: "Where can we as nurse leaders support LTC nursing while making it clear this is our profession of choice?" Her own answers may surprise. Read More »

Customized learning, culture change

Grow staff, impact the perceptions of long-term care and deliver on the promise of culture change. A comprehensive approach to staff development is inherently linked to organizational development. Read More »

Reflections on a life in long-term care

Long-Term Living contributor Eli Pick’s account of a life in long-term care offers valuable insights and lessons learned from failures and successes along the way. "This was very difficult for me in the beginning," he writes. Read More »

LeadingAge announces new summit for executives

LeadingAge’s Future of Aging Services Conference and Leadership Summit have been combined to create the PEAK Leadership Summit. Read More »

In the long-term care resident’s shoes—or wheelchair

To experience just one of the many challenges a LTC resident experiences on a daily basis can be sobering and eye-opening. And, it just might make you reconsider your facility's approach to resident care. Read More »

How to leverage word of mouth in senior living

For senior living communities, social media is a “brand” new world adding a new dimension to the marketing mix and a “brave” new world for communities to share their stories. Read More »

HHS rule on electronic funds transfers in healthcare to save $4.5 billion

New standards build upon regulations published earlier this year that set industry-wide standards for how health providers use electronic systems to determine a patient’s eligibility for health coverage and check on the status of a health claim. Read More »