With the elderly and many people with disabilities so vulnerable to COVID-19, every nursing home needs to do everything it reasonably can to prevent the entry or spread of the disease. In a previous blog post, however, we discussed how 20% of U.S. nursing homes are...
Nursing Home Injuries
Study: 1 in 5 nursing homes face severe PPE and staff shortages
People in nursing homes make up less than 1% of the U.S. population. However, they account for 43% of all COVID-19 deaths, according to the COVID Tracking Project. Our loved ones are very vulnerable to this disease, and adequate staffing and personal protective...
Experts: COVID-19 testing in long-term care facilities falls short
According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, residents and staff of long-term care facilities account for almost 45% of COVID-19 deaths in the U.S. Yet testing for the virus has not reached levels that experts say are necessary to stem the spread of the virus.Stateline,...
Pandemic underscores systemically low staffing in nursing homes
Even with restrictions on visitors, COVID-19 has run through nursing facilities like wildfire. As we discussed recently on this blog, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) estimates that almost 26,000 residents of American nursing homes have died from...
Almost 26,000 nursing home residents have died from COVID-19
With the U.S. death toll from COVID-19 above 100,000, we now have information about how many of those deaths occurred in nursing homes.According to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), nearly 26,000 residents of U.S. nursing homes have died from...
Consider visiting your loved ones in nursing homes by phone
"This is the greatest threat to nursing home residents that we have seen in many years, if not ever," a long-term care medicine specialist told NBC News.It's the COVID-19 pandemic he was talking about, and it is putting nursing home residents at grave risk. The...
Fall prevention for the elderly: 3 safety tips
The statistics on falls among the elderly are startling. Every second of every day, somewhere in America, it happens. An older person falls down and often gets hurt.For many who fall, the injuries start a downward spiral that becomes difficult or even impossible to...
HHS report finds patient neglect, false billing in hospice care provided under Medicare
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Inspector General has just released a report on hospice care provided through Medicare. After synthesizing patient records and Medicare patient data from more than a decade, the Inspector General concluded that, while...
Safe at home: 3 things to know for caregivers of older adults
When facing advancing age and illness, most people prefer to stay in their own home as long as possible, rather than go into a care facility.To respond to this need, millions of Americans provide care to aging or ill family members. It's difficult work, even in the...
Tennessee nursing homes still failing to make the grade
A recent report reveals that dozens of Tennessee nursing homes are failing to adequately provide for and protect their vulnerable residents.A Shelbyville nursing home in particular, Glen Oaks Health and Rehabilitation, had previously been accused of providing "grossly...