Articles on "Senior Housing"
Retirement Community Segregates Residents with Disabilities in Dining Room
The Virginia Pilot reports that last May, the continuing care retirement community, Harbor’s Edge instituted a policy that prohibited residents in the assisted-living and nursing-care sections from dining in River Terrace or any other dining facilities in the independent wing. Rather, they needed to eat in the dining hall of their own section. Community resident, William Hodges, a former state legislator and senior judge of the Court of Appeals of Virginia required a mobility device and lives in assisted living [...]
State is Piloting “Advanced Standing” for Assisted Living Licensure
Health Commissioner Mary O’Dowd said a state license merely tells the public that a facility meets minimum state standards. Now, in what she said is a first for the nation, New Jersey is partnering with the long-term care industry to promote new and higher quality standards that will single out facilities reaching for a higher bar than what is required to get and keep a state license. Called “Advanced Standing,” this new benchmarking process is designed to elevate quality at [...]
Nursing Home Quality Not Improving – Investigative Report USAToday
A recent USA Today report reveals that 560 of the nation’s nursing homes have not budged for the past three years from a one-star federal government rating — the lowest on a five-star scale. The star ratings are part of a broader federal effort to increase transparency for consumers of health care. When introduced in late 2008, nursing home industry groups called them simplistic and unfair. Some consumer advocates say nursing home quality can change quickly, and no ratings system [...]
Nursing Homes and Hospitals Prepare for Another Round of Budget Cuts
Nursing-home operators, already hit hard by last year’s cuts in federal and state funding, face another revenue loss in Pennsylvania Governors proposed budget for the fiscal year starting July 1. The budget proposal, released Tuesday, calls for a 4 percent cut in the Medicaid reimbursement rate for nursing homes. The total revenue loss for nursing homes is projected by the Pennsylvania Health Care Association to be $46.5 million. That amounts to a nearly $8-per-day reduction in the average daily reimbursement [...]
Study Suggests High Rate of Drinking in Assisted Living Facilities
The rate of drinking among residents in assisted living facilities is high, according to a new study published in Research on Aging, titled Alcohol Misuse and Abuse Reported by Nurse Aides in Assisted Living. Researchers asked more than 800 nursing aides in facilities about behaviors they had observed, or had evidence of, among residents they cared for. Their responses suggest nearly 70 percent of assisted living residents drank alcohol. More than one-third of residents drank daily, and 12 percent had abused [...]
InternationalLiving.com launches hunt for Americans or Canadians willing to live as expat retirees in Ecuador for a month – all expenses paid.
InternationalLiving.com is looking for a single person or couple willing to spend a month road-testing an overseas retirement in colonial Cuenca, Ecuador – a destination that earned the top spot in their 2012 Global Retirement Index, a listing of the world’s best retirement havens. According to InternationalLiving.com’s want ad, entrants “Must be willing to relax… explore a new place… shop the local farmers and craft markets… take walks… go to concerts… attend festivals… maybe try a Spanish class… enjoy local [...]
NYT Article Explores Male / Female Occupancy in Nursing Homes
Paula Span explores a topic in her weekly New York Times post that touches on something discharge planning and case managers know all too well! She writes, “Nursing homes are heavily female, like the elderly population itself. A report by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services in 2010 found that about two-thirds of residents were women. In some homes I’ve visited, it looks closer to 80 percent. And most rooms in nursing homes are “semiprivate,” one of the great [...]
Emergency Room Visits Can Bring Infection Back to Nursing Homes
An emergency department visit may triple the risk of respiratory and gastrointestinal infections for nursing home residents, researchers found. The rate of new acute respiratory or GI infections was 5% within a week of an emergency department visit compared with 2% when not leaving the long-term care facility, according to Caroline Quach, MD, of McGill University in Montreal, and colleagues. Quach’s study examined outcomes at 22 nursing homes in Ontario and Quebec during the months of September 2006 to May 2008 [...]
Long-term care “State of the Union” Address
The nursing-home industry is piggy-backing off the president’s State of the Union speech to draw attention to the state of long-term and post-acute care in the United States. The American Health Care Association and the National Center for Assisted Living released their annual report this week looking at innovations in the industry and warning against harmful cuts in federal reimbursements for Medicare and Medicaid. The group enables thousands of member facilities to share the priorities they feel the president should [...]
Government eyes an effective Alzheimer’s treatment by 2025
Effective treatments for Alzheimer’s by 2025? That’s the target the government is eyeing as it develops a national strategy to tackle what could become the defining disease of a rapidly aging population. It’s an ambitious goal — and on Tuesday, advisers to the government stressed that millions of families need better help now to care for their loved ones. “What’s really important here is a comprehensive plan that deals with the needs of people who already have the disease,” said [...]
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