Well, you aren’t alone! Providers all over the country have been focusing on reducing the number of re-hospitalizations! And what a great goal to have, right? The problem we encounter is that we can’t seem to get a handle on the “why” and the “how” to prevent them.

As we continue to soldier through the process of preventing unnecessary re-hospitalizations and nosocomial infections, AHCA/NCAL has partnered with Brown University’s Center for Gerontology to involve members in a proposed study that seeks to evaluate if enhanced environmental cleaning will reduce the rate of infection among patients in skilled nursing centers and ultimately reduce hospitalizations.

The National Pressure Ulcer Advisory Panel (NPUAP) in collaboration with Creighton University Health Sciences Continuing Education, recently hosted a webinar on Considerations for Bariatric Patients in Pressure Injuries and Wound Care. This program focused on the “how” and “why” we do what we do when caring for residents with a diagnosis of obesity as their needs often differ.

Have you ever visited a community only to be bombarded by noise, alarms sounding, call lights beeping and overhead paging? It can be very stressful can’t it? So, let’s talk about alarms and why we use them! I remember years ago, prior to the creation of tab alarms, etc. when we went to a store called “Radio Shack” and purchased alarms to attach to resident chairs/beds to alert us when the resident attempted to rise. These alarms were intended to be used by runners, sportsmen, etc. who may be in the wilderness and need help. So imagine the decibel of sound that was emitted from these alarms, it was deafening! Then someone took pity on us and invented the resident care alarms with a lower decibel but noise just the same!

It is amazing how quickly we turned from winter to spring this year! The sun is out in the Midwest which is a rare sight in the month of February but we aren’t complaining! With spring upon us we are looking at day light savings time and “springing forward” in a few weeks. For many of us this means a loss of an hour of sleep, for others it means gaining an hour of golf at the end of the day. Whatever it means to you, have you considered what it means to your residents with cognitive loss?

Congratulations! We exceeded expectations!

Per the CMS Blog posted in January 2017, we have enjoyed a sharp reduction in avoidable hospitalizations among long-term care residents.

Infection control has been a hot-button issue for several years, and many centers have been cited under F441. Are you one of them? Good news! The CDC has developed a tool for evaluating our current processes and identifying if there are any gaps in our protocols. The tool is intended to assist in assessing infection control programs and practices in nursing homes and other long-term care settings.

Here's some exciting news in our pursuit to identify the root cause of falls! A recent article published in Managed Health Care Connect identifies that people whose brains work the hardest when they try to walk and talk at the same time may have a higher risk of falling in the future than seniors who can do both of these with ease! To our knowledge, this is the first study to link brain activity changes that PRECEDE behavioral changes to risk of falls, per researcher Dr. Verghese.

It’s the most wonderful time of the year...unless you're responsible for ensuring your residents are provided with appropriate staffing during the holidays! Then it might not be so wonderful, right? As an administrator, I remember meeting every morning with the management team and the first question was always, “How is staffing for the weekend?” or, “How is staffing for the holidays?”

These are high-risk times for senior living centers, and there is no way to avoid it. But there may be some ways to encourage caregivers to “show up” for work, or even “volunteer” for extra shifts.