A breath for life: The complete coverage of the 2015 OPTIMA Award winner

The complete coverage of Long-Term Living's 2015 OPTIMA Award winner—including the main article, companion articles, photos, video and a blog—is gathered here for your convenience. Each editorial piece contains links to all the other components.

2015 OPTIMA Award: A breath for life

This year's OPTIMA Award winner, Silvercrest Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation, Briarwood, N.Y., has slashed its hospitalizations despite having one of the highest acuity rates in its region. Long-Term Living's Pamela Tabar spent two days visiting the site and learning how the skilled nursing facility is using collaborative care teams, customized electronic documentation and early-intervention tools to keep its unique resident population out of the hospital. [This story includes an extensive photo gallery]

IT: The bridge between care and outcomes

Documentation is key to reducing hospitalizations: How detailed and integrated are your clinical records? Silvercrest has spent the past few years creating an integrated electronic health record (EHR) system that knows its residents almost as well as the staff does.

Reducing readmissions: The hospice factor

Part of Silvercrest's strategy to reduce avoidable hospitalizations is to educate its residents and families on the role of hospice and palliative care—including the importance of respecting a resident's wishes to die in peace rather than be subject to aggressive hospital intervention at the end of life.

The anatomy of a team [BLOG]

What does “cross-discipline team care” really mean? Silvercrest has created a model for reducing hospitalizations by involving every staffer—from physicians and nurses to the housekeeping staff—in the endeavor of quality care for an extremely high-acuity resident population.

2015 OPTIMA: hospital transfers analysis [VIDEO]

When it comes to avoidable hospitalizations, sometimes a simple change in care routine or a deeper look into clinical causes can prevent another transfer later. In this video, Silvercrest's avoidable hospitalizations team discusses a resident who recently transferred to the hospital to analyze what might have been preventable.

Pamela Tabar

Pamela Tabar was editor-in-chief of I Advance Senior Care from 2013-2018. She has worked as a writer and editor for healthcare business media since 1998, including as News Editor of Healthcare Informatics. She has a master’s degree in journalism from Kent State University and a master’s degree in English from the University of York, England.