Nicole Stempak
Nicole was Senior Editor at I Advance Senior Care and Long Term Living Magazine 2015-2017. She has a Journalism degree from Kent State University and is finalizing a master’s degree in Information Architecture and Management. She has extensive studies in the digital user experience and in branding online media. She has worked as an editor and writer for various B2B publications, including Business Finance.
Brookdale resident dances her way to ‘The Ellen Show’
A Brookdale Senior Living program director recognizes a resident’s love for dancing and Ellen DeGeneres, so when she won the chance to grant the wish of a resident’s lifetime, she had to go to Los Angeles. Read More » Is tweeting golden for seniors?
A new clinical research project is pairing college students with seniors to teach each other about Twitter. As seniors learn how to use the social media platform, students learn whether being connected improves emotions, language and cognitive function in older adults. Read More » Studying the brain on the MIND diet
The National Institute of Aging is funding a study to see whether the Mediterranean-DASH Diet Intervention for Neurodegenerative Delay (MIND) diet is an effective strategy to slow cognitive decline and reduce the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease. Read More » 2016 Leaders of Tomorrow: Tanner Mitchell
Our final Leaders of Tomorrow award winner is Tanner Mitchell, administrator and president of Brentwood Health Care Center in Santa Monica, Calif. Mitchell has rolled up his sleeves to start several initiatives, partner with phsycians and build a culture of customer service—all in under three years. Read More » Seniors tell their stories to ward off memory loss
Older Americans say it's important to maintain or improve brain health. The Administration for Community Living, in partnership with Oakland, Calif.-based Statebridge senior theatre company, is helping seniors take center stage and share their stories. Read More » Texas assisted living residents displaced by flooding
Rising floodwaters prompted an evacuation of Atria Cypresswood after historic flooding in the Houston area. Read More » Mass. lawmakers want to raise nursing home wages
A budget proposal by Massachusetts lawmakers would spend at least $35.5 million on nursing homes, specifically, on wages and benefits for employees. Read More » Fast food threatens to steal LTC workforce in Texas
Texas has one of the highest turnover rates for nursing home employees. The facilities are having trouble staying competitive with Wendy’s or McDonald’s, which can offer hourly workers a job with better pay and less stress. Read More » Boomer expectations don’t match reality for retirement, report finds
The sixth annual Boomer Expectations for Retirement report from the Insured Retirement Institute found baby boomers are less confident about and how well they have prepared financially for retirement. Read More » Tap dancing at any age
An 85-year-old Navy veteran always wanted to learn to tap. He decided it was finally time to dance. Read More » Arizona State University to build CCRC on campus
The university wants to build a continuing care retirement community on campus. The CCRC could appeal to the roughly 30,000 alumni age 65 and up dwelling in Arizona who want to relive their college years. Only, this time class is optional. Read More » CMS payment model could change primary care for up to 25M Medicare beneficiaries
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) will test a new payment model that encourages doctors to focus on health outcomes rather than volume of visits or tests. Read More » Light therapy helps people with dementia sleep
A pilot study by Ecumen found residents exposed to bright lights for at least 30 minutes a day had fewer sleep disturbances, behavioral episodes and needed less antipsychotic medication—all without any adverse side effects to the light. Read More » Older women have less cognition loss—and less quickly—than men
Researchers examined the effects of aging on cognitive functioning. They found normal age-related memory and cognition decline may occur at an earlier age and at a faster rate in healthy older men compared to healthy older women. Read More » New clues in the link between Alzheimer’s disease and diabetes
Researchers have found that Alzheimer’s disease impairs the part of the brain that regulates metabolism. That means people with dementia may be more likely to develop diabetes. Read More » DOJ: substandard nursing home care will not be tolerated
The Department of Justice announced the launch of 10 regional interagency task forces designed to protect seniors in nursing homes by holding operators accountable for the quality of care they provide. Read More » CMS imposes fines of more than $278k for Woodbriar Health Center
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has imposed steep fines and threatened to terminate Woodbriar Health Center from its programs if serious problems are not resolved by next week. Read More » Innovation program to reduce nursing home hospitalizations
The Center for Innovation has invested more than $30 million for Indiana University’s project to reduce avoidable hospitalizations for nursing home residents by providing higher levels of care on site. Read More » Penn. SNF union workers to earn $15 an hour
On the heels of California and New York, thousands of CNAs in Pennsylvania will now earn $15 an hour. Read More » Joshua Freitas named NCCDP’s 2016 educator of the year
The National Council of Certified Dementia Practitioners has named a former OPTIMA award winner the educator of the year for educating—and inspiring—frontline staff on dementia care. Read More » Adding color to ICD-10 codes
A group of health information technology nerds enjoyed finding obscure and absurd ICD-10 codes like toxic effect of venom of bees, intentional self-harm. They thought others might, too, so they found their favorites, formed a publishing company and illustrated them for your amusement. Read More » Calif. nursing home population growing younger
From 1994 to 2014, the population of California nursing home residents under age 65 increased by nearly 40 percent. So, too, did the number of reported problems directly related to the resident population mix. Read More » Training went unheeded at Woodbriar Health Center, say Mass. regulators
Employees at Woodbriar Health Center were retrained on falls-related injuries following the death of a resident, according to a revised plan submitted to the Massachusetts Department of Public Helath. The department says the second fall-related resident death is the result of deficient care. Read More » mmLearn.org expands healthcare training video collection
The Web-based training company adds new training resources based on current trends and industry demand to fill employee healthcare training gaps, increase job satisfaction, reduce turnover and ultimately improve patient care. Read More » CMS solicits advancements, interventions in care delivery through Special Innovation Projects
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services seeks ideas for improving care delivery through a Special Innovation Program and will offer 28 awards totaling $8 million. Statements of Objectives will be available early April. Read More » FBI investigates hospice owner for overmedicating, Medicare fraud
The FBI is looking into claims the 34-year old accountant himself chose which home healthcare patients would be moved to hospice, recruited unqualified patients and charged the government for services not medically necessary. Read More » World’s aging population continues to grow older
Researchers project an unprecedented growth of people age 65 and older by 2050, but living longer doesn’t mean people are living healthier. Read More » Government to add nearly 6,000 updates to ICD-10
The CDC and CMS announced they will celebrate the one-year anniversary of the transition to the new classification system by implementing new diagnosis codes, hospital inpatient procedure codes and revision of existing code titles. Read More » Nursing home antipsychotic drug rates slowly declining
The Long Term Care Community Coalition reviewed Medicare data to see how effective a federal campaign to reduce inappropriate antipsychotic drugging in nursing homes has been since it was launched fin 2012. There’s still a long way to go, the advocacy group found. Read More » 