Month: November 2008

Resident Gifts

During the holidays you will want to send a gift to a loved one near or far who is in a nursing home. Since I have lived in a nursing home for years Read More »

Thanksgiving Thoughts

From left: Meredith (niece), Kathleen, Andy (brother-in-law), Janice (sister), King (four-footed-friend). When I moved to this nursing ho... Read More »

Is Daschle right for HHS?

During the GE Healthcare national user conference in Washington this August, the keynote speaker for the Executive Forum was former senator Tom Read More »

Darkness descends over Sunrise

On November 7, Sunrise Senior Living, arguably the nation’s premier brand name in assisted living services, reported a startling third quarter Read More »

Your response to funding cuts

Have government funding cuts caused you to reduce staffing levels?         Comments:   - You talk about how nursing homes violate US Read More »

SAD and Me

The beautiful uptown Somerset Ohio Square. (Photo: OZinOH) The shorter days and cooler temperatures darken my Read More »

Your 2008 election favorite

I voted for:             Comments:   - Clearly, the country has been on the wrong track. Let’s hope Obama will be able to unite the country Read More »

Voice Recognition Digital Dictation

Voice recognition or Speech recognition (also known as automatic speech recognition or computer speech recognition) converts spoken words to Read More »

ICD-10: The Mark Of The Beast?

Of course not. We all know that the National Patient Identifier is the mark of the Beast. ICD-10 is just a pain in the butt.   I read an Read More »

Keeping the Bandbox

I was brought up to dress well and be neat to as a pin.  I wore uniforms to school and we changed to other clothes immediately after.  My mother Read More »

The power of publicity

The value of positive media coverage is—to paraphrase the credit card commercial— “priceless,” and is often overlooked by senior communities. The Read More »

Activities Experiences

When I first came to live in a nursing home I was not very interested in participating in facility activities.  Bingo was a big deal here, but I am Read More »

Your resident’s Internet access

Is the Internet available to your residents?     Comments: - We have three computers in our lab, and are soon adding a cognitive exercise computer Read More »

The value of a root cause analysis

In recent years, a special focus of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, as well as the healthcare industry in general, has been the need Read More »

The case for care transparency

When the new Congress gets down to business early next year, organizations representing the nursing home community will be confronted with two Read More »

A new world for residents

Sometimes repositioning of a facility to transition from the old to a new era can seem to be the most obvious course of action imaginable. But what Read More »

LTL Online

The Long-Term Living Web site serves daily news focused on the LTC field. The news feed covers reports and studies, governance, views and news from Read More »

CMS star rating system should be based on quality, not compliance

Editor's Note: This article was originally sent to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and appeared in the Illinois Council on Long Term Read More »

Risk management: Lighting’s impact on residents

An issue receiving more and more attention by researchers and designers in long-term care is lighting and glare. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Read More »

Product Focus

Incontinence Briefs TENA® Super Stretch Briefs from SCA Personal Care have stretch sides to provide full breathability, promoting skin health and Read More »

Nanotechnology: Good things come in small packages

Nanotechnology is moving beyond the hype and R&D labs and into real-time application. It's the big buzzword in industry today—but what is it? Read More »

The LTC Training Dilemma: Finding the Right Training Company

Every day, a typical long-term care (LTC) organization experiences many training-related challenges. Worker skill and performance gaps and an Read More »

An asterisk-free life

I'm in an awkward position. Not literally, because I'm actually quite comfortable here in my cozy recliner, feet up, mug of coffee in hand, computer Read More »

60 is the new 50

In terms of aging, everyone is touting 60 as “the new 50”; thus, 70 is the new 60, and so on. Clearly, this is evident everywhere—in the workforce Read More »

“Hello, Sweetie”

Recently the New York Times ran an article about all the “sweeties,” “dears,” and “honeys” who occupy our long-term care facilities. And all of them Read More »