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The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid’s (CMS) Quality Improvement Organization program has recently established the Strategic Innovation Engine (SIE) to help advance quality healthcare innovations. Its mission is to identify, evaluate and spread proven innovations to achieve the three-part aim of better care, healthier people and communities, and smarter spending.
My other half and I tease each other lightheartedly about getting old. As a couple in our mid-40’s, the idea of aging is growing on us. So we jokingly attribute the occasional forgetfulness to getting old.
Memory loss that disrupts daily life may be a symptom of dementia, such as Alzheimer’s, a brain disease that causes a slow decline in memory, thinking and reasoning skills.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), there are 1.4 million residents living in the nation’s 15,600 nursing homes. Restraints are used on far too many, often under the misguided notion that they keep residents safe from falls.
Improving resident mobility is not only about safety — it’s also about dignity and independence. Several factors affect mobility such as antipsychotic drug use, restraint use, incontinence, poor nutrition and fear of falling. Each of these obstacles can be overcome.
Roger Mynatt settled into a local Starbucks to drink coffee, get some work done and do a little soul searching. He got his latte, found a good spot to sit and fired up his laptop. The first place he went online was to Nursing Home Compare to check his facility’s star rating.
Victor Harris almost died after taking a new medicine for high blood pressure. Victor, a 52-year-old African American, was on a low dose of blood pressure medicine for two years. After a routine visit to his primary care office, the nurse practitioner he saw changed his medication to lisinopril.
We all love to be loved. There’s no getting around it. If anyone tells you differently, they’re just in need of . . . well, a good, long hug.
Sandra Simpson is the Director of Nursing for Jefferson County Nursing Home in Fayette, Mississippi. She has been there 18 years and loves what she does. She, her staff and her residents also love that their facility has maintained a composite score of less than 6.00 for most of the last four years.
Halloween isn’t just for kids. Nursing home residents can have fun too.
The Nursing Home Activities Resource website shares several ways your facility can create a spooktacular holiday!
