A strong restorative services program can boost resident outcomes and independence. By Angie Szumlinski, LNHA, RN-BC, RAC-CT, BS and Erica Holman, BA, LMSW, LNHA, CDP At a local skilled nursing center, the administrator asks staff for assistance to enhance their restorative program. Fortunately, the center had both a therapy director and restorative nurse who expressed a desire to work together …
Angie SzumlinskiDirector, HealthCap Risk Management Services Resident falls continue to challenge our communities, it is the highest cause of rehospitalizations, negative outcomes, immobility and claims in long-term/post-acute care. There are many products on the market that appear to have some promise in early identification of fall risk including the use of assessment tools to measure the level of frailty. The …
The Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program targets pneumonia as a critical disease because it has the highest mortality and morbidity rates of all hospital-acquired infections and a major threat to patients in long term care facilities. Many of the risk factors for pneumonia involve oral hygiene and oral care, including pathogens in the oral cavity and trouble swallowing properly. Aspiration pneumonia, …
A review of one of the most tragic issues in modern nursing homes, failure to detect patient deterioration, used a five-step process to extract and examine data on study aims, key findings, afferent/efferent consequences, and team implementation and practice of rapid response procedure. Ultimately, 23 of 120 potential articles were used in the review, with 15 of those focusing upon …
The Inspector General performed an in-depth review of adverse events on a subset of people receiving care. A summary of their findings and recommendations is as follows: The Office of Inspector General (OIG) found that 21 percent of Medicare patients in Long-Term-Care Hospitals (LTCH) experienced adverse events, which are particularly serious instances of patient harm resulting from medical care. The …
Many health systems across the USA face a scenario of low physician engagement in, and limited use of, Electronic Health Record Medication Reconciliation (EHR Med Rec) leading to high rates of medication discrepancies and low accuracy of the patient’s active medication list, during transitions of care. A Social Knowledge Networking system was implemented to create an increase in meaningful use …
Several reports have suggested a higher morbidity of depression in patients with dementia with Lewy bodies than those with Alzheimer’s disease. Unfortunately, those results have not been consistently duplicated. The psychiatric symptoms of dementia, such as depression, are important for its diagnosis and management. As a result, this study aimed to clarify the qualities of the depressive symptoms in DLB …
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced a proposed rule, “Medicare & Medicaid Programs; Requirements for Long-Term Care Facilties: Regulatory Provisions to Promote Efficiency and Transparency” (CMS-3347-P). This proposed rule would increase facilities’ ability to devote their resources to improving resident care. The proposed rule would, among other provisions: Reduce the frequency that LTC facilities are required to …
The Office of Inspector General (OIG) determined the prevalence of incidents of potential abuse or neglect of Medicare beneficiaries residing in skilled nursing facilities who had an ER Medicare claim in 2016 with a high-risk diagnosis code, whether these incidents of potential abuse and/or neglect were properly reported by the SNFs, whether the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) …
Burnout is a syndrome of emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and a decreased sense of accomplishment at work that results in overwhelming symptoms of fatigue, exhaustion, cynical detachment, and feelings of ineffectiveness. It is by and large a result of systematic issues, not personal issues or psychological makeup. This syndrome is found to affect 20% of all staff in one study, while …
