The chairman of the United States Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development has recommended that the group issue regulations limiting long-term care facility inspections.
Chairman Tom Latham (R-IA) believes that “inspections for facilities can be ‘duplicative with state and local health and safety codes and at times even contradictory’ under the National Housing Act,” according to one article. Continue reading
1. Visit your loved one at their nursing home often. Besides giving you and your loved one a chance to interact and connect in-person, visiting their nursing home allows you to get to know the staff and the other residents whom they interact with on a daily basis. Since the majority of nursing home abuse and neglect is committed by someone familiar to the victim, regular visits with your loved one may enable you to spot nursing home neglect or abuse before it becomes deadly.
2. Remain calm and professional anytime you are working with a nursing home staff. Establishing calm and even friendly relationships with the nursing home staff at your loved one’s long-term care facility allows you to better monitor their care. It also means that the nursing home staff is more likely to respect and respond to any questions or concerns that you may have about your loved ones long-term care. Continue reading
The rate of questionable transfers of end-stage dementia patients from nursing homes to hospitals has raised flags for public health researchers at Brown University.
After analyzing Medicare records of approximately 475,000 patients, the team, led by Dr. Joan Teno, M.D., found that nearly 20 percent of dementia patients were transferred from their nursing homes into hospitals for questionable reasons. Continue reading
In a “happy accident,” one Orange County, Florida, nursing home facility has found that the iPad 2 is helping dementia residents reclaim some of their memory, motor, and social skills.
Although devices that monitor movements, habits and temperature have been used in nursing homes for years, the iPad is one of the first high-tech devices to truly interact with residents. Continue reading