Health and Disability

Medicare won’t pay for conditions “that could reasonably have been prevented.”

These preventable conditions, sometimes dubbed “never events,” i.e. events that should never have happened, may include:

• Bedsores or pressure ulcers not present on admission.
• Injuries caused by falls
• Infections caused by catheters left in blood vessels or bladders
• Sponges or other objects left in patients during surgery
• Incompatible blood transfusions
• Death from other blood products
• Misuse or malfunction of medical devices
• Wrong site surgeries.
• Restraint strangulation.
• Deaths from medications.
• Deaths from childbirth.

What is a Medicare “Never Event” in Nursing Home or Hospital

The National Center for Health Statistics' website is a rich source of information about America's health... More

CDC - National Center for Health Statistics Homepage

Citing changing demands on families and the need to recognize diversity, the Office of Personnel Management proposed regulations on Monday opening up the long-term care insurance program and certain leave programs to the same-sex partners of gay and lesbian federal employees.

"With America's changing demographics and socioeconomic trends, employees have increasing personal needs and family care obligations," Jerome Mikowicz, deputy associate director at OPM's Center for Pay and Leave Administration, wrote in the draft leave regulation. "OPM believes it is important to address the needs of a more diverse workforce. By ensuring consistent policies within the federal government we set an example as the model employer of a diverse workforce."

Draft rule opens long-term care, leave programs to domestic partners (9/14/09) -- GovExec.com

I'm not sure how many people are aware of this, but we are nearing the end of National Suicide Prevention Week (Sept. 6-12). In fact, today - September 10 - is World Suicide Prevention Day.Specifically, there is an appalling lack of voiced concern over the promotion of suicide in the populations of old, ill and physically disabled people. For the first few months of this year, there was nationwide coverage of the Final Exit Network - an organization that supports and facilitates the suicides of people with nonterminal disabilities and chronic conditions. Over the course of many months, stories appearing in countless outlets included the URL for the Final Exit Network in their stories. The website provided information on obtaining suicide instructional materials and how to get involved with the Final Exit Network. Most of the articles treated the Network and its "work" sympathetically.

Not Dead Yet News & Commentary: It's Suicide Prevention Week - Except for Old, Ill and Physically Disabled People

The elderly who suffer from dementia aren't able to say when something hurts or is sore. They may demonstrate their pain through behaviours like rocking or striking out, and we often dismiss these actions as symptoms of the dementia instead of pain, which is usually from a different problem. Arthritis, diabetic neuropathy, fractures, muscular contractures, bruises, abdominal pain and mouth ulcers are among the list of common ailments that go undetected. It is important for those who live or work with persons with dementia to know how to identify when an elderly person is experiencing pain - and receive treatment sooner rather than later.
The University of Alberta's Cary Brown, PhD, has a new tool to help. She has developed an online workshop and toolkit for caregivers, health-care providers, family members and friends of people with dementia.
The researcher from the Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine created an evidence-based website with a narrated presentation on pain and dementia, a downloadable resource pack for family members, a downloadable pain log and a facilitator's toolkit with background material, a planning guide, promotional material and supplemental information for organizations who wish to put on a workshop.
The online workshop and toolkit are available at: http://www.painanddementia.ualberta.ca

Pain In People With Dementia Often Undiagnosed

….The accountable care organization is one of the latest designs for managing Medicare that is gaining traction among policymakers desperate to control costs and boost quality in the system. Proponents of the concept want to see it tested along with such alternatives as patient-centered medical homes, pay-for-performance and payment bundling.

A typical Medicare ACO would include a hospital, primary care physicians, specialists and potentially other medical professionals. Services would still be billed under fee-for-service, but the organization's members would coordinate care for their shared Medicare patients with the goal of meeting and improving on quality benchmarks. Because ACO members are held jointly accountable for this care, they would share in any cost savings that stem from the quality gains……

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AMNews: Aug. 31, 2009. Accountable care organizations: A new idea for managing Medicare ... American Medical News

Welcome to the National Care Planning Council...

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and our web site "Long Term Care Link", a comprehensive
resource for long term care planning. The articles below will
help you learn about long term care planning and the providers
and services in the categories on the left and below under
"Find Eldercare Services" are here to help you with your
eldercare planning needs.

Long Term Care Link - A Comprehensive Resource for Long Term Care

The Dallas couple, who are in their early 60s, have remodeled their 1980s-vintage master bathroom and kitchen so that they can use both more easily as they grow older. They replaced their tub with a step-in shower, and they enlarged the kitchen and installed pullout shelves….

Like the Exleys, nine of 10 people older than 50 plan to remain in their homes for as long as their health allows, an AARP survey has found. But most older homes weren't built to accommodate the frailties of old age.

The typical American home is still a "Peter Pan house," constructed for the young couple whom contractors think will never grow old, said Marty Bell, director of communications and marketing for the National Aging in Place Council, an advocacy organization….

Senior-proof your house now so you don't have to move later | News for Dallas, Texas | Dallas Morning News | Dallas Business News

A team of researchers from the University of Granada (UGR) has created a system with Artificial Intelligence techniques which reminds elderly people or people with special needs of certain everyday tasks. This system uses sensors distributed in the environment in order to detect their actions and mobile devices which remind them, for example, to take their keys before they leave home……

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Reminders From Intelligent System Increase The Independence Of Those With Special Needs

More than six million people in the U.S. suffer from persistent wounds - open sores that never seem to heal or, once apparently healed, return with a vengeance. Employing a special solution developed at Prof. Freeman's TAU laboratory, Dermastream offers a new approach to chronic wound care, a specialty known as "continuous streaming therapy." ……

"Our basic idea is simple," says Prof. Freeman. "We treat the wound by streaming a solution in a continuous manner. Traditional methods require wound scraping to remove necrotic tissue. That is expensive, painful and extremely uncomfortable to the patient. And while active ingredients applied with bandages on a wound may work for a couple of hours, after that the wound fights back. The bacteria build up again, creating a tedious and long battle……

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"Dermastream" To Heal Bedsores And Chronic Ulcers