Walker & Dunlop announced a three-facility financing deal with a total price tag of $37 million, covering a pair of skilled nursing facilities and a supportive living property. The Bethesda, Md.-based real estate finance company secured a $14.9 million refinance on The Grove Fox Valley, a 156-bed SNF in Aurora, Ill, and a $14.9 million […]
Month: May 2020
Senior housing and care leaders again called on the federal government to more aggressively bankroll COVID-19 testing in the nation’s nursing homes, arguing that the burden will be ongoing — especially since an already expensive one-time testing strategy may not be an instant cure-all. Given recommendations from the White House and Centers for Medicare & […]
One of the primary factors in the spread of COVID-19 in skilled nursing facilities is the workforce — specifically staff members in a facility who are infected with the virus while not showing any symptoms of illness. Regardless of whether or not those infected do begin to show symptoms, they can still pass on the […]
LeadingAge CEO Katie Smith Sloan has been outspoken in her calls for increased government support for nursing homes and other senior care providers amid the COVID-19 crisis. As the case count continues to rise and operators face down a new normal with coronavirus at the center of every decision they make, Sloan has loudly and […]
Randy Oostra, the president and CEO of ProMedica Health System, is well situated to see every angle of the unfolding COVID-19 pandemic in both the acute and pos-acute fields. The Toledo, Ohio-based ProMedica acquired the operations of HCR ManorCare in 2018 – which puts ProMedica in a unique position during a pandemic that is attacking […]
Two months of stories about COVID-19 deaths in nursing homes have taken a toll on the public’s opinion of the industry, a new poll commissioned by SNN found — but the vast majority of people believe that the government has not done enough to support the facilities during the pandemic. Only 3% of people have […]
A senator from one of the states hit hard by COVID-19 is calling for increased funding to help long-term care facilities and nursing homes better cohort patients with the virus, while also managing the costs of testing and personal protective equipment (PPE). “We know that works, when you separate in a long-term care facility — […]
A significant portion of infection control surveys conducted after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic found no deficiencies at New York City nursing homes — even those with substantial coronavirus death tolls, according to a new report. Local news publication The City analyzed 35 inspection reports from surveys performed under the Centers for Medicare & […]
While the COVID-19 crisis in nursing homes may feel like a lifetime for staffers and family members, the CEO of a major non-profit provider in New York City warned that the challenges are only beginning. Daniel Reingold, chief executive of the Bronx, N.Y.-based RiverSpring Health, described the first eight weeks of the coronavirus pandemic, dating […]
Over the holiday weekend, the Associated Press published an article on the frustratingly slow progress of universal COVID-19 testing in nursing homes. The news agency rightfully pointed out that due to the logistical challenges of supplying and executing 1.3 million tests for each of the nation’s nursing home residents, such a task would be difficult […]
Genesis Healthcare (NYSE: GEN) reported its financial results for the first quarter of 2020, and provided the first look into the depth of the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on its operations. The Kennett Square, Pa.-based Genesis — which operates almost 400 skilled nursing, assisted/senior living, and behavioral health centers located in 26 states — saw a […]
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on Sunday released its “COVID-19 Strategic Testing Plan” to Congress, and argued that a targeted testing strategy “based on diagnosis, contact tracing, and smart surveillance” is the best solution to allow the country to emerge from pandemic-inducted lockdowns. The report, which was released as part of requirements […]
The federal government last week cautiously began laying formal groundwork for reopening the nation’s nursing homes, which have been under COVID-19 lockdown orders since the middle of March. But many experts both inside and outside the industry have asserted that nursing facilities can’t even think about returning to normalcy without substantially more financial and material […]
Amid the national emergency caused by COVID-19, infection control in skilled nursing facilities has come under intense scrutiny, with past violations examined under the media microscope — and surveys from the government focused solely on the issue. That scrutiny is only likely to increase due to the challenge nursing homes face trying to contain COVID-19 […]
The Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) watchdog arm added multiple probes of nursing homes’ response to COVID-19 to its list of top 2020 priorities, with a particular focus on infection control. The HHS Office of the Inspector General (OIG) last Friday announced two coronavirus-related investigations as part of its ongoing 2020 Work Plan […]
As skilled nursing facilities try to contain COVID-19 within their walls, or prevent it from entering at all, the skyrocketing cost of personal protective equipment (PPE) has been a significant stumbling block to their efforts. Without the proper PPE, staffers are at risk of contracting the virus as they care for COVID-19-positive patients, while residents […]
The deadline for nursing home industry stakeholders to apply for a spot on the federal government’s special commission on safety and quality passed last weekend, but not everyone who threw their hats into the ring will win a seat — and the problems facing the industry run deeper than any one group could solve in […]
The coordinator of the White House Coronavirus Task Force on Friday defended the federal government’s progress in encouraging universal COVID-19 testing in nursing homes, asserting that the nation has the capacity to test more people than currently live in long-term care facilities. “We only have a million nursing home residents,” Dr. Deborah Birx said during […]
The federal government on Friday announced the distribution of almost $4.9 billion in COVID-19 relief funds directly to skilled nursing facilities, the first specific tranche of stimulus money for the industry released since the start of the pandemic. Each skilled nursing facility in the country will receive a baseline paymentof $50,000, plus an additional $2,500 […]
When Renee Lohman, the founder and former CEO of the CareWell Urgent Care chain of clinics in Massachusetts, was seeking a new opportunity in health care, she didn’t have to look far past her own experience with a family member in a skilled nursing facility. “I was pretty well stunned by the 1970s physical plant,” […]
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