Long-Term Care Facilities Archive
How Post-Hospitalists Decrease Health Care Spending
The benefits of post-hospitalists cannot be overstated. These specialized physicians have proven to enhance the quality of care, make facilities compliant with ever-changing regulations and decrease health care spending. How does one type of skilled physician decrease health care spending? Being dedicated to post-acute and long-term care facilities Many physicians divide their time between hospitals,Read the Rest…
Top Reasons for Hospital Readmissions from SNFs
When it comes to hospital readmissions, there’s a fine line between being cautious and being careless. One in five elderly persons is readmitted to the hospital within 30 days of leaving, according to the federal government. Not only is this a disconcerting fact for the patients’ sake, but also financially destructive. Hospital readmissions from MedicaidRead the Rest…
The Real Cost of Hospital Readmission Rates
Starting this year, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) fees are being strongly enforced and will affect many non-complying hospitals. The cost of hospital readmission is already extensive for health care payors and patients, and now hospitals will be financially impacted as well. CMS’s hospital penalties are expected to reach $428 million inRead the Rest…
What IMPACT Has Done for Nursing Home Five-Star Rating System
The Improving Medicare Post-Acute Care Transformation Act (IMPACT) was signed into law by President Obama on October 6, 2014. The IMPACT was created to improve the quality of care for home health care, nursing home, rehabilitation and long-term acute care hospital patients. These improvements are to be made using more efficient and accurate data collectionRead the Rest…
5 Tips to Improving Nurse-Physician Communication
If you’ve ever requested information from a health care representative and received the response, “I’m not sure, you’ll have to speak to someone else,” you know the frustration of disconnect within an organization. While every employee cannot know everything, the team as a whole should be aware of as much information as possible—the care ofRead the Rest…
Will Changes to Five-Star Rating System Bring Improvement?
As of 2014, there were 15,800 nursing home facilities caring for approximately 1.4 million residents in the United States, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). Of the entire U.S. population, 0.9% age 65-74, 3.2% age 75-84 and 11.2% over the age of 85 reside in nursing facilities, according to the U.S.Read the Rest…
CMS Looking at Nursing Home Medication Use
Antipsychotic medications are intended to help control psychosis and mental health conditions such as schizophrenia. They also frequently used to treat dementia in elderly patients. But, these drugs have proven to have serious side effects for elderly persons. Why exactly are they frequently prescribed in nursing homes then—and often to patients who don’t even requireRead the Rest…
Patient-Centered Care Approach Tops List of Changes Coming to Long-Term Facilities
A combination of increasingly high costs, alarming statistics, Affordable Healthcare Act requirements and an aging generation of Baby Boomers has forced the long-term care industry to evaluate and adjust the way it provides services to post-acute care patients. An increasing number of patients have their healthcare coverage through an ACO or MCO, which have theirRead the Rest…
Transitions from SNF to Home Lead to High 30-Day Hospital Readmission Rates
The rates of hospital readmissions after transitioning from hospital to a long-term care facility have been under scrutiny for some time because of the high costs to Medicare and Medicaid. Now, 30-day readmission rates after transitions to home from LTCs are being looked at too. The results aren’t good. A study of 50,000 Medicare beneficiaries,Read the Rest…
Patient Continuity of Care Lapses Linked to Hospital LCF Transitions
Continuity of care suffers during transitions from hospitals to long-term care facilities because 25 % of new patient care recommendations aren’t followed. As a Journal of Aging Research concludes, both long-term care facilities and hospitals contribute to the break in continuity of care. But financial penalties to hospitals with high readmission rates will likely driveRead the Rest…