The relationship between different nursing home staffing types and health outcomes is incredibly nuanced, and as operators grapple with optimizing the clinical workforce in the aftermath of the staffing mandate, researchers in the space say more study is needed to really understand the correlation between roles and quality measures. According to a July study published […]
JAMDA
While families of nursing home residents and dementia specialists have significant influence on antidementia medication decisions, many residents lack their involvement. Such influence is similar to family sway on care planning for antipsychotic medications among nursing home residents. One in six nursing home cases almost always have no immediate family or caregivers involvement, according to […]
Hospital readmissions have emerged as a pressing concern within the realm of post-acute care in skilled nursing facilities (SNFs). Not only do readmissions impact the health and well-being of elderly patients, but they also have significant cost implications. Additionally, they play a pivotal role in the evaluation of facility performance, a crucial aspect of value-based […]
Higher staffing levels contribute to better scores on quality measures suggesting that Care Compare for nursing homes could benefit from adding a measure for staffing instability. This is the recommendation of a study published in the August issue of the Journal of the American Medical Directors Association (JAMDA), which revealed that both staffing instability and […]
Hospital discharge to skilled nursing facilities can benefit from certain protocols that are currently missing when patients make this transition between care settings, according to a new study. While the complexity of care transitions between nursing homes and hospitals is well known, investments in programs like Age Friendly Health Systems (AFHS) have become key to […]
As federal entities push for greater infection prevention and control resources in nursing homes, some researchers in the space argue that even more needs to be done to keep pace with rising acuity and a multitude of comorbidities in today’s residents. The space will need a mix of long-term and immediate solutions, according to Dr. […]
While the rate of visitation is known to play a crucial role in nursing home choice and offers positive benefits for residents and staff, this statistic has become even more significant in the face of potentially hundreds of nursing home closures. Travel time, for one, plays a significant role in visit probability, and in turn […]
In recently announced rules of participation, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) included several updates related to behavioral health in nursing homes. The agency aims to further address the rights and available services for residents with mental health needs, including a focus on situations where practitioners or facilities may have inaccurately diagnosed or […]
Physicians are needed more than ever in a nursing home, industry leaders and researchers say, as the sector continues to move toward a setting with higher acuity patients. And the role may become more attractive to prospective clinicians as the post-acute care setting isn’t “tainted by bureaucracy in medicine,” according to Dr. Justin DiRezze, CEO […]
The number of physicians who practice in a nursing home – commonly referred to as SNFists – have increased 48% between 2014 and 2017, but there is still no formal medical designation for the role. The Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) hasn’t provided a standard definition of what such a position would entail […]
A recent University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing study reveals that after making the COVID-19 vaccine a condition of employment (COE), one 180-bed skilled nursing facility (SNF) in Philadelphia saw 17 staff members, or 6.9% of the overall staff, resign from their positions. An additional three were exempt for religious or medical reasons and four […]
Since the landmark passage of a sweeping oversight bill in the late 1980s, hundreds of nursing homes have closed — while those that remained have increasingly taken on more difficult medical cases, according to new research from Brown University. The analysis, which focused on the effects of the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1987 (OBRA […]
The regulatory push to reduce antipsychotic drugs in nursing homes may be correlated to a rise in risk factors for avoidable and non-avoidable hospitalization among residents with behavioral health issues, according to a recent study published in JAMDA, the journal for The Society for Post-Acute and Long-Term Care Medicine. A team of researchers from the […]
When an ombudsman remains on site during post-acute and long-term care facility surveys, the building’s quality scores may be negatively affected, according to a study in published this week in JAMDA, journal of AMDA — The Society for Post-Acute and Long-Term Care Medicine. Researchers determined that ombudsmen may direct assessors to more attention to on-site […]
In a reimbursement landscape where hospitals increasingly look to cut nursing homes out of the continuum of care entirely, a recent study found that it’s possible to predict “with good accuracy and clinical usability” which patients will end up being discharged to a skilled nursing facility. The index — which was developed by researchers from […]
Most newly admitted nursing home residents could not be safely and cost-effectively diverted to home- and community-based services (HCBS) because many of them have health issues, such as dementia and stroke, that require high levels of care, according to a Canadian study in the July issue of JAMDA. Only about one in 20 nursing home residents could […]