ProAging Information Network

SEATTLE–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Emeritus Corporation (NYSE: ESC), a national provider of assisted living and related services to senior citizens, announced today that it has completed the refinancing of seven communities with Freddie Mac for $36.3 million at a fixed rate of 6.05% and a term of 10 years.

In addition, the Company paid down $20.1 million of existing debt with Capmark using the proceeds from the Freddie Mac refinancing and extended the remaining balance of $72.7 million from September 2009 to January 2012. The initial interest rate for the Capmark debt will be 6.5% and will require initial annual principal reductions of $3.0 million. Annual interest expense will increase approximately $3.0 million as a result of these transactions.

Mr. Dan Baty, Chairman and Co-CEO of Emeritus stated, “With our strong cash position and the extension of maturity dates, our balance sheet continues to improve. We have no material maturities for the next three years.”

ABOUT THE COMPANY

Emeritus Corporation is a national provider of assisted living and Alzheimer’s and related dementia care services to seniors. Emeritus is one of the largest and most experienced operators of freestanding assisted living communities located throughout the United States. These communities provide a residential housing alternative for senior citizens who need assistance with the activities of daily living, with an emphasis on personal care services, which provides support to the residents in the aging process. Emeritus currently operates 302 communities in 36 states representing capacity of approximately 26,700 units and 31,600 residents as of the date of this press release. Our common stock is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol ESC, and our home page can be found on the Internet at www.emeritus.com.

Source: http://living.oneindia.in/health/wellbeing/2008/gardening-health-benefits-old-age-301208.html

 

Here is some news for the adults who get bored with exercise. Gardening is a recommended physical activities for the aging people to maintain a sound health.

At least 30 minutes of gardening can cover up for the low intensity fitness routine required for the cardio patients to keep fit, but do not have the stamina required. The study was conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American College of Sports Medicine.

Recently a study conducted by Sin-Ae Park, Candice Shoemaker, and Mark Haub of Kansas State University, aimed at finding out if gardening enables older adults to meet the physical activity recommendation set forth by the CDC and the ACSM.

Gardening results in improved health and helps beat depression, as reported by a recent study. However the researcher are yet to conclude whether gardening can offer the individuals the same positive health benefits that regular physical activity (such as jogging, swimming, or weight training) provides.

 Gardening results in improved health and helps beat depression, as reported by a recent study.

 

They expected that gardening would influence whole-body bone mineral density because it included weight-bearing motions such as pushing a mower, digging holes, pulling weeds, carrying soil, and other tasks required use muscle groups in the entire body.

The study involved 14 gardeners aged 63-86 years. Their heart rates, oxygen intake and energy expenditure were recorded. The time spent on gardening was also recorded, which averaged to 33 hours per week during May, but only 15 hours per week in June and July.

The risk of sedentary lifestyle is heavier on older adults, which leads to increased risk of decline of muscular strength and endurance, flexibility, balance, and cardiopulmonary health.

The boredom associated with exercise can be beaten by simple tasks of gardening, therefore making it more likable by the older adults. It was thus, concluded that gardening was the best way for the adults to meet the physical demands made by CDC and the ACSM. AGENCIES

Source: http://online.barrons.com/article/SB123032988055736059.html?mod=googlenews_barrons

By AVI SALZMAN  | Barrons

Two execs sold $1.1 million in shares of the residences operator.

THE CHAIRMAN AND VICE CHAIRMAN of Assisted Living Concepts (ticker: ALC) sold nearly all of the shares they owned in the company over the past two weeks.

The sales come as the assisted-living company’s shares have fallen 51% on the year and its strategies to boost profits have failed to pay off for investors and drawn increasing scrutiny from government officials.

David Hennigar, the chairman of the company, sold 80,000 shares for $313,000, for an average per-share price of $3.91 between Dec. 19 and 24. Melvin Rhinelander, the vice chairman, sold 201,700 shares for $822,000, or an average price of $4.08 per share from Dec. 22 to Dec. 26.

According to their filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the directors no longer own any of the publicly traded class A shares of the company directly. Each continues to hold some class B shares, which can be converted into 1.075 class A shares – Hennigar owns 15,400 and Rhinelander owns 2,000 (held as custodian for a child). Class B shares have special voting rights and do not trade publicly.

And Hennigar also has a stake in a fund that controls the voting power in the company, though he does not control the fund’s vote.

The company’s proxy statement said that Hennigar’s class A shares were held in a margin account and his class B shares were pledged as collateral for a loan as of March 21.

Laurie Bebo, the company’s president and CEO, says in an interview with Barron’s Online that the two directors sold for tax purposes and "they certainly expect to be back in the stock when they can do that."

Assisted Living Concepts, which owns 216 residences with more than 9,000 units, was spun out in 2006 of a company called Extendicare, which now operates as a real-estate investment trust. Hennigar had served as the chairman of Extendicare and Rhinelander had served as its president and chief executive officer prior to the spinoff.

The company has tried unsuccessfully this year to expand its profit margins. At the end of 2006, it served a particularly large number of Medicaid patients – nearly 30% of its patients were on the joint federal and state program. The company receives about two-thirds as much from Medicaid as it does from private patients, says Derrick Dagnan, an analyst at Avondale Partners who rates the stock at Hold. The company’s goal was to shift its patient base, bringing in more of the lucrative private payers and increasing its margins. But that strategy has not panned out, Dagnan said.

The company has decreased the portion of Medicaid patients it serves, but has not added enough private payers, he said. Occupancy rates reached about 85% at the end of 2006, but fell to 68% in the third quarter this year, which ended on Sept. 30, he says.

"That’s very low for an assisted-living facility," Dagnan says, pegging the industry average at about 86%.

The company has also run into trouble with government agencies that have questioned its tactics. The New Jersey Department of the Public Advocate, for instance, started investigating Assisted Living Concepts after hearing about residents being involuntarily discharged once they had exhausted their life savings and were forced to go on Medicaid. That investigation, which has included more than 100 interviews with current and former residents and families, is ongoing, says a spokeswoman for the public advocate’s office. Bebo says the company’s license does not compel it to continue to serve patients once they go on Medicaid and it is suing New Jersey’s Department of Health and Senior Services to try to quash the investigation.

"We’re happy that people want to stay with us but we can’t continue to accept everyone rolling over to Medicaid," she says.

Assisted Living Concepts has run into similar problems in Washington state, Dagnan said.

Reducing the Medicaid patient base "looks good to an investor but not on a local level," Dagnan says. "To a consumer it can be a nightmare."

Well-placed advertising and marketing resources go a long way at Montgomery County’s award-winning Elder Law Series 2009. Now is your chance to reserve one of a very limited number of promotional opportunities.  The Series will take place in May and June 2009.  This major community event will bring together well over  a thousand people over 55, caregivers, adult children, and providers of services to mature adults – for seminars on the most current legal issues affecting the senior population. Your business can benefit from an affiliation with the Elder Law Series by accessing one of several partnership possibilities. Reserve your space today. Call Helen Abrahams at 240-777-4968 or e-mail helen.abrahams@montgomerycountymd.gov for information. 

Source: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2008/dec/31/top-banana-grocerys-brandywine-headquarters—with/

Grocery store has service perks

Karen Goldberg Goff

Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Top Banana grocery’s Brandywine headquarters - with its small aisles and employees in cheerful aprons - looks like a store from another era. The public, however, can’t shop there. Like the stores of the old days, Top Banana brings the groceries to its customers. It isn’t a retail operation; it is a nonprofit that has been helping senior citizens and others who have difficulty getting out to shop in Maryland and the District for more than 25 years. When carrying groceries becomes difficult, Top Banana becomes an important resource.

In the Internet era, many large grocery stores - Giant and Safeway among them - have resumed delivery operations. Type in your order on a Web site, and it appears, sometimes in a cooler on your porch. Top Banana’s personal approach goes beyond groceries, founder Jean Guiffre says.

Top Banana staffers are friendly voices on the other end of the phone. Delivery drivers have been known to change a light bulb or take out the trash for clients. They will deliver information about other senior resources and occasionally have saved a life.

"We save people’s lives every day," Ms. Guiffre says, referring to the basic task of making sure people get the right food to keep them healthy. "But there have been [an] untold number of times we have found someone who has fallen. The drivers are not medically trained, so they can’t treat the customer, but they can make a phone call. We try to have emergency contact information for every customer. For a lot of customers, we are the only people they regularly see."

Top Banana Home Delivered Groceries Inc. (www.topbananagrocer.org) began as a personal project for Ms. Guiffre, a former private investigator. One day in 1982, she went to her mother’s apartment in Hyattsville. The cupboard was bare even though the grocery store was a block away. Arthritis and heart disease made shopping difficult for Ms. Guiffre’s mother, but she didn’t want to ask family members to help.

"She just sat there and did without," Ms. Guiffre says. "So I got a list and went and did her shopping. Within a few months, I was taking groceries to five of her neighbors."

By the next year, after researching issues affecting senior citizens, Ms. Guiffre was in business, stocking the rooms of her house with canned goods, toilet paper and other household necessities. Top Banana was home-based until 1998, when the groceries had "taken over my entire house," Ms. Guiffre says.

Gainesville, VA – [December 22, 2008].  The Marque at Heritage Hunt, an Active Adult, rental apartment community in Gainesville, Virginia, is unwrapping a new Program to benefit three non-profit organizations:  Transitional Housing BARN, Inc., the Salvation Army and Children’s Hospital Foundation.  

“In the spirit of the season, this is a wonderful way for our residents to give to an organization of their choice and know that they are doing something to help others in need,” said Linda Kurtz, Director of Marketing for The Marque at Heritage Hunt.  “The residents choose three organizations and we are thrilled to be able to facilitate the program.” 

The Resident Referral program is a “win-win-win” for renters, The Marque and local charities, just in time for the holidays. Residents at The Marque are encouraged to refer their community to friends and family.  If one of those friends signs a one-year lease with The Marque, the resident will receive $1,000 of which they can donate a minimum of $200 to one of the three non-profit organizations participating in the program.

About the Charities

Transitional Housing BARN Inc provides housing, supportive services, life management skills and financial education for homeless women and their dependent children. Of the moms that successfully complete the program, 96% of those go on to permanent housing.  

Founded in 1865, The Salvation Army is an evangelical part of the universal Christian church and is one of the largest charitable organizations in the United States. Nearly 29 million Americans receive assistance from The Salvation Army each year through an array of social services that range from providing food for the hungry, relief for disaster victims, assistance for the disabled, outreach to the elderly and ill, clothing and shelter to the homeless and opportunities for underprivileged children.

The Children’s Hospital Foundation is the fundraising arm for Children’s National Medical Center in Washington, D.C. The foundation partners with individual donors, corporations, and community organizations to help Children’s doctors, nurses, and clinicians fulfill their vision to transform children’s health in the Washington area, across the country, and around the world.  The Children’s National Medical Center, the only exclusive provider of pediatric care in the metropolitan Washington metropolitan area and only freestanding children’s hospital between Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Norfolk, and Atlanta.  Children’s has served the nation’s children for more than 130 years and is a proven leader in the development and application of innovative new treatments for childhood illness and injury. 

About The Marque at Heritage Hunt

The Marque at Heritage Hunt is located just off I-66 and Route 29 at 13550 Heathcote Boulevard in growing western Prince William County just across the county lines from Fairfax, Fauquier and Loudoun Counties.  Residents enjoy an array of amenities ranging from a fitness and health center to a vegetable garden to a full complement of in-house and a` la carte services. The community offers short and long term leases.   For more information on The Marque, please call 703-754-7711, or visit their website at www.TheMarque55.com. 

For more information on Transitional Housing BARN Inc., please visit their website at www.Barninc.org, or phone 703-369-1325.  For more information on The Salvation Army, please visit their website at www.salvationarmyusa.org.  For more information on the Children’s Hospital Foundation, please visit their website at www.dcchildrensfoundation.com, or phone 301-565-8500.

Source: http://www.physorg.com/news148841187.html

December 18th, 2008 in General Science / Other

(PhysOrg.com) – In 1980, when America was still dealing with the oil crisis from the previous decade, Ann Kolanowski, Elouise Ross Eberly Professor of Nursing at Penn State and director of the John A. Harford Foundation Center of Geriatric Nursing Excellence, wanted to see how high energy costs were affecting the elderly.

Kolanowski conducted a survey by visiting the homes of 100 elderly people living in Pennsylvania and compared the temperature in their homes with their core body temperatures. She found that many homeowners kept the heat in their homes pretty low – below 70 degrees in most cases – and a number of those people had core body temperatures as low as 96 degrees.

"In the middle of the energy crisis, there was a lot of concern that older people were turning down their thermostats due to cost," she said. "In a very rural part of the state I found an elderly couple huddled in their bed with their coats on — their home was not insulated and they had run out of oil. I was able to get them emergency fuel."

Kolanowski found that homeowners on a fixed income were keeping their temperatures down to make living affordable. However, the elderly renting apartments where heat was included with rent, or those receiving assistance, were living comfortably, with the average inside temperature of their homes at 83 degrees.

Senior citizens, Kolanowski said, have a higher risk of getting hypothermia for several reasons: they tend to have lower metabolic rates, making it harder to generate body heat. They often have chronic illnesses, like cardiovascular disease or hypothyroidism, that can interfere with maintaining body temperature. Some medications, such as tranquilizers, can cause a drop in body temperature. And living on a fixed income makes it harder to adjust to higher energy bills. Those on fixed incomes also tend to wear less expensive clothing, like polyester, which doesn’t have the high insulation value of natural fibers, such as wool and silk.

"A lot of people also think if they take a shot of whiskey it will warm them up," she said. "But this is counterproductive. You lose heat because your blood vessels are dilating with the alcohol. So originally you feel warmer, but you’re losing heat."

A lot can happen to someone who experiences hypothermia, Kolanowski said. The person’s body temperature lowers, which can cause confusion – he or she won’t be thinking clearly and is more at risk of going outside without realizing the dangers of leaving shelter. An irregular heartbeat can result from lower body temperature, which can progress into a coma and then death.

"Hypothermia is a serious condition that needs to be treated," she said. "With older people, a body temperature of 96 degrees and below is concerning."

Those showing signs of hypothermia but who are awake and alert should immediately work to increase their body temperatures – they should put on heavier clothing and a hat, have a bowl of warm soup and, if they can, move around to make themselves warm. On the other hand, Kolanowski said, someone who is confused or lethargic should be taken to the doctor immediately.

Kolanowski offers a few simple solutions to staying warm in the winter:

* Eat high-energy foods with complex carbohydrates, such as trail bars, raisins and other foods that produce more calories to generate more heat.

* Do a quick check around the house to look for drafts to block, cover windows with plastic, and shut off unused rooms so the whole house doesn’t need to be heated.

* Keep physically active – get up and move around to generate heat.

* Wear clothing with natural fibers, wear layers and a hat.

* The elderly can contact their Area Agency on Aging and receive assistance with energy bills and/or insulating their homes.

"If you’ve got an elderly person living by themselves in a rural area, it’s a good idea to have someone call them at least once a day to make sure they’re okay, in case they fall," Kolanowski suggested. "You want to find them as soon as possible because if they fall and lay unprotected for hours at a time, they could develop hypothermia that way."

Provided by Pennsylvania State University

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/18/us/18silver.html?_r=2&scp=2&sq=Florida&st=nyt

By CARMEN GENTILE

Published: December 17, 2008

MIAMI — Charlie Brownlee, who is 76 and suffers from dementia, staggered out of his sister’s Miami home barefoot one day last month and got behind the wheel of a car.

Mr. Brownlee’s condition is generally manageable with medication, but on that day the family was dealing with the death of a relative, and no one had remembered to give him his pills. “And just like that,” said his sister, Mary Agnes Jones, “no one knew where he was.”

Frantic, the family reported Mr. Brownlee’s disappearance to the police, who immediately issued a bulletin under Florida’s newly created Silver Alert program.

Similar to the Amber Alert, declared when a child is abducted, a Silver Alert is circulated when a person 60 or older who suffers from dementia or another cognitive impairment like Alzheimer’s disease goes missing. About a dozen other states, including neighboring Georgia, have adopted similar programs, and legislation creating a national program is pending in Congress.

In Florida, where the elderly are so large a share of the population and, according to state government estimates, account for half a million cases of Alzheimer’s, the Silver Alert has had an immediate impact, officials say.

Indeed, all of the 19 people for whom the state has issued bulletins since adopting its program in November have been found, said E. Douglas Beach, Florida’s secretary of elder affairs. That includes Mr. Brownlee, who, having been missing for two days, was discovered by a police officer parked in a roadside ditch some 30 miles north of his sister’s house.

One feature of the Florida program sends an automated phone call to every residence within a one-mile radius of the missing person’s home, providing pertinent information like a physical description and the vehicle being driven, if any. In Mr. Brownlee’s case, said Detective Jose Rojas of the Miami Police Department’s missing persons unit, “we put out about 5,000 calls describing what he looked like, the car he was driving and which way we thought he was traveling.”

In another feature, for cases like Mr. Brownlee’s in which the missing person is thought to be behind the wheel, the Florida Department of Transportation’s “dynamic message signs,” which normally alert drivers to traffic conditions and detours, flash a physical description of the person, the kind of vehicle, its license plate number and possible direction traveled.

Mr. Brownlee was apparently trying to return to his own home, in Tuscaloosa, Ala., when he was found. Some who suffer from dementia think they can quickly get back to their former homes, however distant, said Christa Ksiezopolski of the Alzheimer and Parkinson Association of Indian River County, up the coast just north of Fort Pierce.

“They aren’t like you or I,” Ms. Ksiezopolski said. “They don’t understand how far they are from home.”

That can be all the more serious in a state to which so many of the elderly move.

“You see how many seniors we have here,” Gov. Charlie Crist said the other day at the groundbreaking of a new home for the elderly in South Miami. “It’s important that we take care of the seniors that are vulnerable.”

Source: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hwX9-j6Yxge44aW5Q0X4viycjNYwD95515L80

By KEVIN FREKING

WASHINGTON (AP) — Rating systems help people decide which restaurants to go to or hotels to stay at. So why not something similar from the federal government for the nation’s 16,000 nursing homes?

Such a simple rating for so complex a task as caring for the elderly is leading to much anxiety in the nursing home industry. Home operators worry about the ramifications for their business if they get one or two stars — when five is the best.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services was to let everyone know Thursday just how many stars each home is getting. Already the industry is questioning the validity of the rankings. To operators, the five-star system a great idea whose time has not yet come.

The system "is poorly planned, prematurely implemented and hamhandedly rolled out," said Larry Minnix, president and chief executive officer of the American Association of Homes and Services for the Aging, an industry trade group.

Federal officials say the rankings will put nursing homes "on the path to improvement" because they know family members will think twice before putting someone in a one-star home.

The ratings are based on state inspections, staffing levels and quality measures, such as the percentage of residents with pressure sores. The nursing homes will receive stars for each of those categories as well as for their overall quality.

Consumer groups like the concept, but they agreed there are some potential problems with the data. For example, the staffing data is self-reported just before state surveys and is widely recognized as unreliable.

"From a consumer viewpoint, it’s not stringent enough," said Alice H. Hedt, executive director of the National Citizens’ Coalition for Nursing Home Reform. "It’s basically taking information already available on Medicare’s Nursing Home Compare Web site and pulling it into an easier system for consumers to use, and that is a good thing."

Hedt said consumers should consider the star ratings, but not solely rely on them when comparing facilities. Her organization also issued a press release warning that nursing homes may appear in the ratings to give better care than they actually do.

"Our initial reaction is that consumers should probably avoid any facility with a one- or two-star rating and even a three-star rating unless people they trust convince them that the rating is inaccurate or unfair," she said.

But, in Indiana, eight nonprofit nursing homes have reported they got one star for staffing even though they have some of the highest staffing levels in the states, said Jim Leich, president and chief executive officer of the Indiana Association of Homes for the Aging. He believes the one-star rating is the result of a records glitch particular to any nursing home that is part of a campus that includes housing for residents with less intensive care needs.

"It’s really going to be an injustice for some of our best facilities," he said.

The Jennings Center for Older Adults in Garfield Heights, Ohio, got four stars for its nursing home, said Martha Kutik, the center’s president and CEO. Still, she’s worried that the rating system relies on surveys that measure cracks in the ceiling but don’t measure patient and family satisfaction.

"Any system that’s going to measure quality for consumers should keep satisfaction high on the list," Kutik said.

Chevy Chase, Maryland, November 17, 2008- Capital City Nurses Vice President of Operations Brian Rodgers today announced the appointment of Jon Eisman to serve as Director of Business Development. Other appointees include Maria Lauro, RN, to serve as Director of Clinical Services for the Capital City Nurses Baltimore and Howard County offices, and Kristen Ferguson to serve as Baltimore Regional Care Coordinator. 

“We expect our marketplace to become more competitive with nationwide layoffs so it is imperative that providing exceptional care remains our focus. The addition of Jon, Maria and Kristen will help us respond to the economic challenges that are ahead of us,” says Rodgers.

Prior to joining Capital City Nurses, Eisman worked as Director of Community Relations at Sunrise Senior Living developing strong business relationships with senior professional groups and families around the D.C. metro area. “I am very excited to be on board and working for such a first class organization that has the reputation to back it,” says Eisman.

Maria Lauro’s involvement with Capital City Nurses will improve the quality of services the company provides in the Baltimore and Howard County areas. “We are excited to have Maria aboard full time and appreciate how her expanded role benefits our client care, caregivers in the field and care coordination staff,” says Rodgers.

Newly appointed care coordinator Kristen Ferguson worked in the Human Resources Department at Legg Mason and at the Emergency Room at the Prince George’s Hospital Center, prior to joining the Baltimore Capital City Nurses office. Her duties will include care coordination, cultivating caregiver and client relationships and office administration.