Leader. Lifelong learner. Top-notch clinician. All ideal qualities for a skilled nursing facility’s director of nursing (DON). Finding – and keeping – a person with all those qualities is a daunting challenge. “I can only tell you, DONs in the post-acute skilled nursing world are very rare and they’re a treasure,” said Nancy Schwalm, chief business development […]
Category: Staffing
Skilled nursing facilities looking to lower the use of potentially inappropriate medications (PIMs) could see success through implementing Multidisciplinary Multistep Medication Review (3MR) intervention, a study published Oct. 10 in the Annals of Internal Medicine suggests. Hans Wouters of the University Medical Center Groningen in the Netherlands, along with his colleagues, recruited 426 nursing home residents […]
An employee of a skilled nursing and rehab center in Illinois is taking his employer to court over mandatory fingerprint scans he says violate a state privacy law. Martin Ragsdale filed suit in Illinois circuit court against Paramount of Oak Park Rehabilitation & Nursing Center in the Chicago suburb of Oak Park, according to Law360. Ragsdale said […]
A multi-year initiative from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to lower hospitalizations in long-term care has its first set of finalized results, with data showing that the plan is working so far. CMS on Friday announced that all seven participating sites saw declines in hospitalizations. Six of the seven had statistically significant drops in […]
The transition between hospital to skilled nursing facility presents a key opportunity to reduce rehospitalization risk, improve outcomes and save money — but a new study finds that players on both sides often aren’t on the same page. The research team, led by Sarwat Chaudhry of the Yale Center for Healthcare Innovation, Redesign, and Learning […]
Arbitration agreements between skilled nursing operators and residents have become a key battleground in the long-term care space, as the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) seeks to roll back an Obama-era regulation that would have banned them. But the fight over arbitration clauses — which prevent parties from seeking legal remedies from disputes […]
Beatitudes, a life plan community in Phoenix, Arizona, has become well known for how it provides dementia care, with articles appearing in The New York Times and other publications. That comfort-first approach is spreading throughout the country, with providers seeing better resident outcomes and operational performance in the model. Three not-for-profit New York City communities—Cobble […]
Post-acute giant Kindred Healthcare (NYSE: KND) is not afraid of making changes—including currently exiting the skilled nursing industry after years of being a major provider. But for staff recruitment, the Louisville-based company is a big believer in tried-and-true methods. Like other providers across the health care spectrum, Kindred has been utilizing social media and other digital […]
Skilled nursing providers that want to improve communication between nurses and certified nursing assistants (CNAs) should study the four themes of the “rules of performance,” according to a University of Utah study scheduled to be published in the Sept.-Oct. edition of Geriatric Nursing. For the study, researchers observed, shadowed and interviewed seven nurses and 10 CNAs who worked […]
Greystone Healthcare Management has named Melissa Purvis its new chief nursing officer, in charge of overseeing operations of 35 skilled nursing facilities that the Tampa, Florida-based company manages. Formerly, Purvis served as national director of clinical practice for Golden Living from 2014 to 2016; the Plano, Texas-based company operates about 300 skilled nursing facilities across […]
The recent hurricanes that have battered states along the Gulf Coast have undoubtedly put the disaster preparedness of long-term care facilities in the region to the test. But not all potential disasters are as predictable as hurricanes, and long-term care facilities still need to be ready to handle them. For this reason, Chicago-based risk management, insurance […]
Investing in the professional development of immigrants who work as long-term caregivers, as well as helping them integrate into the American culture and its norms, is crucial to combatting the long-term care industry’s labor shortage. This is according two former national governmental figures who spoke Wednesday in a debate titled, “The Impact of the Trump […]
As the skilled nursing industry continues to grapple with recruiting and retaining solid talent, leaders at a New York City-based SNF have taken the matter into their own hands by developing an academic approach to combating the shortage. The organization established its Geriatric Career Development (GCD) program in 2006 to not only keep its pool of […]
Despite often having fewer resources, smaller skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) know how to help their staff make the most of the training they receive—more so than their larger SNF counterparts. Though larger facilities tend to have more sophisticated training technology, small facilities have strong methods for evaluating whether skills taught during training are being applied […]
Nursing assistants who work in institutional care settings haven’t gotten a material raise over the last 10 years and largely work part-time — two statistics that may be contributing to an overall workforce shortage, according to a new report. More than half of nursing assistants in nursing homes work part time and take home one […]
Large regional care provider CommuniCare has announced it will take over 16 of Kindred Healthcare’s (NYSE: KND) former skilled nursing facilities in Indiana. The SNFs will provide rehab and holistic healing services, according to a press release. Current staffers are expected to remain in place during the transition. With the latest acquisition, the Cincinnati, Ohio-based provider now operates […]
Hospitals that develop preferred provider networks of skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) are seeing lower readmission rates over time than those that don’t. However, establishing these networks does not come without roadblocks. In a recent study published by Health Affairs, a peer-reviewed health care journal, four hospitals with preferred SNF networks were monitored from 2009 to […]
A new campaign is trying to spark conversations about aging and senior care by spreading a simple message: old people are cool. These conversations are crucial to combating ageism and dispelling myths and fears about skilled nursing and other types of care, says Charles de Vilmorin, who started the project. He is CEO and co-founder […]
When a patient moves through the health care continuum, they can sometimes fall into certain gaps and miss out on services that would otherwise be beneficial. While the system continues to strive for better care coordination centered on the patient, there is one emerging role that can ease transitions and better serve patients — the […]
The last five days were dominated by a pair of major real estate investment trust (REIT) dramas — Sabra Healthcare REIT, Inc.’s (NASDAQ: SBRA) successful shareholder vote to acquire Care Capital Properties (NYSE: CCP), and Quality Care Properties’ (NYSE: QCP) decision to seek receivership for the struggling HCR ManorCare’s facilities. But much more happened in […]