On November 28, 2019, CMS implemented the role “Infection preventionist” for long term care facilities as defined in F882. This term is used for the person(s) designated by the facility to be responsible for the infection prevention and control program and requires specific, individual, detailed training, qualifications, and hourly requirements as described below: The Infection Preventionist (IP) must have primary …
As we are all aware, COVID-19 usually presents with a dry cough, fatigue, and shortness of breath and in some cases patients are asymptomatic. To add to the confusion, physicians managing the healthcare of seniors have found that this population may not present with the typical symptoms as the younger population, making an early diagnosis that much more difficult. Symptoms …
At this point in the pandemic, I doubt that many of you are actually thinking about doing any international travel; however, the World Health Organization posted an interesting article on ”Immunity Passports”. So, what is an “Immunity Passport” you ask? I can tell you what it ISN’T! It is not an international passport for travel but rather a pretty innovative …
On March 29, 2020, AMDA and AHCA/NCAL published a memo discussing the importance of dealing with surge management and conflicting guidelines and public policy around hospital-to-nursing home or hospital-to-assisted living community transfers. Of deep concern was the recent New York State order which states: “No resident shall be denied re-admission or admission to the NH solely based on a confirmed …
A recent article published in McKnights Long-Term Care News, referenced a study performed at the University of Michigan on the impact on resident outcomes with longer stays in post-acute care centers. The study indicates that The researcher recommends that post-acute care providers be “really judicious with the volume of services they provide and conclusive of which of the post-acute care …
The healthcare workforce is expecting a startling shortage of between 46,900 and 121,900 licensed physicians by 2032. One group that may mitigate the catastrophic impact of this shortage could be advanced practice registered nurses. Advanced practice registered nurses (APRN) are prepared to offer a myriad of services including diagnoses and treatment due to their masters-level education. What Does This Mean …
A review of one of the most tragic issues in modern nursing homes, failure to detect patient deterioration, used a five-step process to extract and examine data on study aims, key findings, afferent/efferent consequences, and team implementation and practice of rapid response procedure. Ultimately, 23 of 120 potential articles were used in the review, with 15 of those focusing upon …
A new study by JAMA Internal Medicine found that certain classes of anticholinergic drugs — particularly antidepressants such as paroxetine or amitriptyline, bladder antimuscarinics such as oxybutynin or tolterodine, antipsychotics such as chlorpromazine or olanzapine and antiepileptic drugs such as oxcarbazepine or carbamazepine increased the odds of dementia by nearly 50%. This reinforces the suspected belief that there is an …
Polypharmacy in older nursing home patients is a well-documented concern. Several large studies have demonstrated an association between treatment with antipsychotics and increased morbidity and mortality in people with dementia, and the economic impact of polypharmacy is also substantial, with annual medication-related issues costing $7.6 billion in nursing facilities alone. A recent study uses the Assess, Review, Minimize, Optimize, Reassess …
A recent study finds that nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is an emerging risk factor for incident heart failure (HF). Before this study, NAFLD was suspected to increase all-cause mortality in patients admitted for acute HF, but was never proven to do so. The study was conducted on 264 patients, of whom all were admitted for acute HF between 2013 …
