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 …
OIG Discovers Abuse and Neglect at Skilled Nursing Facilities Not Always Reported or Investigated
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: The Caretaker’s Disease
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 …
Root Cause Analysis
Creating a Fishbone Diagram A fishbone diagram is used to graphically display potential causes of a problem. The layout shows relationships between potential causes and is used in the analysis phase of event investigation. Instructions: Place the problem or outcome statement on the right side of the paper, half-way down; draw a horizontal line across the paper with an arrow …
ACL Releases Annual Profile of Older Americans
The Administration for Community Living’s annual report for 2018 is out and is full of valuable information for any healthcare provider. Here is a quick list of some of the highlights of this incredibly detailed demographics report. Over the past 10 years, the population age 65 and over increased from 37.8 million in 2007 to 50.9 million in 2017 (a …
Care Program Released for Oral Hygiene for Cognitively and Physically Impaired
UNC’s Center for Health Services Research has unveiled Mouth Care without a Battle, a care guide available in two versions. One for In-Service training, and another for in-depth training, especially concerning program and nursing implementation. The program highlights the many health risks of poor oral hygiene. It also focuses on best practices such as the use of interdental brushes instead …
Protect Yourself from Hepatitis A
The state of Michigan has released a report of quick-hitters detailing a serious disease: Hepatitis A. Hepatitis A is a vaccine preventable liver disease caused by a virus, which causes health issues ranging from weeks of discomfort to premature death. The document concerns the spread and symptoms of Hep. A, as well as at-risk groups and treatment of the highly …
Common prescription drugs could result in dementia
A new study by JAMA Internal Medicine found that certain classes of anticholinergic drugs — particularly antidepressants such as paroxetine or amitriptyline, bladder antimuscarinics such as oxybutynin or tolterodine, antipsychotics such as chlorpromazine or olanzapine and antiepileptic drugs such as oxcarbazepine or carbamazepine increased the odds of dementia by nearly 50%. This reinforces the suspected belief that there is an …
Is Efficiency a Trade-off For Safety?
A randomized clinical trial conducted on a study group of over 3,300 Clinicians, who in total recorded almost 4.5 million order sessions, discovered a causative behavior between the number of patient records open at a time and the number of wrong-patient order errors incurred. Clinicians were placed in one of two groups. The first could only have one record open …
Hiring more registered nurses and licensed independent practitioners, may be means of reducing Pneumonia and Influenza
A recent study found that LTCFs with lower RSIRs had more licensed independent practitioners (nurse practitioners or physician’s assistants) among short-stay and long-stay residents, higher registered nurse hours/resident/day among short-stay and long-stay residents, and fewer residents for whom antipsychotics were prescribed among short-stay and long-stay residents. You can download the full study from Oxford University Press.