Health and Disability

from Medical News Today:

About 28 percent of elderly patients were found to be at risk for
harmful medication interactions or drug duplications when they were
admitted to home care, according to a new study by the Center for Home
Care Policy & Research.

The study also found that during the course of a home care episode,
nearly a quarter of patients age 65+ experienced one or more symptoms
or signs of a problem or complication related to their drug regimen.
Medication-related problems - including falls related to anti-anxiety
drugs, and weakness or confusion related to certain cardiac drugs -
were targeted so that home care staff could take preventive action....

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From McKnight's:

An extensive new bill introduced Wednesday by Sen. Herb Kohl (D-WI),
chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Aging, addresses the
workforce crisis. It would provide funding and expand training in
geriatrics and long-term care for healthcare workers.

The "Retooling the Health Care Workforce for an Aging America Act"
would increase funding for grants in geriatrics at health professions
schools, support additional training in geriatrics for nurses, and
require government studies on workforce needs in long-term care. It
also would establish tuition stipends to allow direct care workers in
long-term care to acquire nursing degrees, among other provisions. The
legislation follows several studies that have uncovered dire shortages
in the nursing workforce and ranks of nursing educators. It amends
several acts and calls for additional research.

From Alternative Medicine:

Results are in from a national survey of long-term care administrators
and MDS coordinators fielded by HCPro, Inc. (http://www.hcpro.com), a
Halyard portfolio company. While many are waiting for the MDS 3.0
implementation date to begin the transition, the concerns over
educating themselves and their staff members is starting now.
Twenty-four percent of those surveyed reported that they have already
started training staff, despite few facilities (only 16%) having
budgets designated for this effort. Most organizations plan to wait
until the final MDS (http://www.MDSCentralonline.com) 3.0 assessment is
released in March, 2009, before training will begin in earnest.

Getting staff up to speed on how to code the new assessment correctly
was discovered to be the single biggest concern among responding
facilities. But when asked about worries over the nuts and bolts of
implementing the change, a substantial 62% of facilities indicated the
amount of time necessary to train staff members on MDS 3.0 was the key
problem area troubling them...

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From Medical News Today:

Many older adults want to remain active and independent for as long as
possible. Seniors want to age in their own homes and avoid moving to
institutions or nursing homes. University of Missouri researchers are
using sensors, computers and communication systems, along with
supportive health care services to monitor the health of older adults
who are living at home. According to the researchers, motion sensor
networks installed in seniors' homes can detect changes in behavior and
physical activity, including walking and sleeping patterns. Early
identification of these changes can prompt health care interventions
that can delay or prevent serious health events....

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From Medical News Today:

Ed Wagner, MD, MPH, knew there had to be a better way. He and Group
Health colleagues set out 15 years ago to explore how best to engage
patients with chronic diseases in effective care. With Robert Wood
Johnson Foundation support, they developed the Chronic Care Model. More
than 1,500 U.S. and international medical practices have adopted the
Model. Now the largest roundup of evidence on how the Model performs in
practice confirms that it works. This review is in the January/February
2009 issue of Health Affairs, focused on a key part of reforming health care: caring for chronic diseases in a "fragmented" health care system....

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From Press-Telegram:

...a recent Bush administration change in
federal rules on nursing home inspections makes it nearly impossible
for others to do the same, say opponents of the federal action.

Put into effect in October with little notice and without a
public comment period, the federal move is getting sharp criticism for
closing off what advocates call crucial information....

Officials at the Department of Health and Human
Services said employees have been too burdened by requests for
information. Under the rule change, state employees who inspect nursing
homes for the federal government are reclassified as federal employees
who aren't allowed to provide "privileged" information or documents to
the public without approval from the head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services....

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From PHI:

This study finds that certified nursing assistant (CNA) hours per day
were significantly associated with better pneumococcal and influenza
vaccination rates and that a greater than 70 percent turnover was
inversely related to timely physician notification. The authors
conclude that a nursing home's ability to implement evidence-based care
may depend on adequate staffing ratios and stability.

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From The Dementia Caregiver's Toolbox:

Dementia caregivers may seem to be difficult people to shop for because
their lives are so tied up in caregiving responsibilities.  Yet this
characteristic gives you many great gift ideas to help them balance
their caregiving with some needed attention to themselves.  Here are a
few simple ideas:

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From Justice for All blog:

President-elect
Barack Obama has nominated former Senator Tom Daschle to be Secretary
of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.  His book
"CRITICAL - What We Can Do About the Health-Care Crisis," (Thomas Dunne
Books, St. Martin's Press, 2008) is quite important for advocates of
the disability and elderly communities.  Below are some relevant portions of the book.....

Here's what he writes about "long-term care," which he recognizes as a "troubling area - and the only one in which we spend less compared to peer nations." 
Medicaid "is fundamentally geared toward institutional care, even
though most elderly people prefer to receive care at home or in more
personalized community settings."

Daschle quotes Professor David Mechanic who calls "long-term
care' the stepchild of our health-care system'," which "vividly
exhibits our system's inability to deal with chronic conditions in an
integrated way."

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From Freep:

More than one in five of Michigan's 417 nursing homes
received failing grades for good care, staffing and deficiencies cited
in state inspections, according to a groundbreaking new system unveiled
today by the federal government's Medicare agency.The www.medicare.gov/nhcompare site will be updated four times a year.....

Sixteen nursing homes in tri-county metro Detroit received top
grades. Marywood Nursing Care Center, a small, nonprofit Livonia
nursing home and assisted living center with 117 beds, got the highest
scores in the tri-county area.

For a complete list of Michigan facilities and their scores, go to www.freep.com/data.cq-anstett
Thirty-three other nursing homes in tri-county metro Detroit got the
lowest scores, including five Heartland facilities in Bloomfield Hills,
Grosse Pointe Woods, Dearborn Heights and Livonia that are part of HCR
ManorCare of Toledo. Livonia has two Heartland facilities....

For More.....