Articles Posted in Nursing Home Neglect

A new study by the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing has found that high patient loads and high nurse exhaustion rates were associated with an increase in catheter-associated urinary-tract and surgical-site infections among hospital patients.

According to an article on McKnights.com, reducing cather-associated urinary-tract infections remains a top concern among nursing home staff. The study found that urinary-tract-infection rates increased by about one additional infection per 1,000 patients for each additional patient that as added to a nurse’s workload.

Researchers analyzed data from self-reported responses that included emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and personal accomplishment. They identified emotional exhaustion as the key to burnout syndrome.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has made navigating it’s Hospital Compare and Nursing Home Compare websites even easier with enhanced IT tools and mobile-ready applications.

At a press conference on July 19, CMS announced the redesign, which will allow families to find important information such as data from nursing home inspections and other quality measures more easily.

According to an article on InformationWeek.com, CMS’s Deputy Chief Medical Officer Shari M. Ling, MD said, “Hospital Compare and Nursing Home Compare allow Americans to make side-by-side comparisons of the nursing homes and hospitals in their area on a diverse range of metrics. These can range from specific medical standards, such as how many people are taking the appropriate medications following a surgical procedure, to the levels of patient satisfaction with a facility.”

According to an article in the Health News section of USNews.com, a new study shows that getting quality sleep might help older people stay out of nursing homes.

The study involved nearly 1,700 women with an average age of 83. Researchers assessed the quality of their sleep and tracked how many were admitted to nursing homes within five years.

Adam Spira, lead author of the study and assistant professor in the department of mental health at Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, said, “Sleep disturbances are common in older people. Our results show that in community-dwelling older women, more fragmented sleep is associated with a greater risk of being placed in a nursing home or in a personal-care home.”

The Schuylkill County Board of Commissioners is scheduled to vote on proposed room and board rate hikes for Rest Haven Nursing Home in Schuylkill Haven at the July 25 public meeting.

According to an article on the RepublicanHerald.com, this will be the first increase since November 2009.

If the rates are approved, they will increase from $250 per day each to $325 for a private room, $300 for a semi-private room (with 3 beds), $275 for a room with four beds, and $300 for an Alzheimer’s unit. The rate hike would take place in September.

A U.S bankruptcy judge has put on hold an auction of items from Saint Catherine Medical Center in Fountain Springs.

The hold on the auction is based on the fact that the hospital’s trustee has not provided a detailed notice to creditors about personal property to be sold. According to an article on RepublicanHerald.com, Judge John J. Thomas said, “We don’t know if it’s jewelry or junk. We don’t know if it’s cars or trucks.”

Saint Catherine Healthcare of Pennsylvania LLC, The Boulder Investment Trust, and Windriver Corp. of WY LLC had filed an objection to the sale, in an effort to sell the business in its entirety, fearing the personal property would not bring in as much income.

As the country continues to struggle through this challenging economy, more families have no other option than to place their aging loved ones in a nursing home. Now a new study by Brown University shows that Latino families, known for their close family ties and dedication to caring for their families, are also feeling this pressure as elderly Hispanics are entering nursing homes at a growing rate.

According to an article on NBCLatino.com, the number of elderly Hispanics living in U.S. nursing homes rose by 54.9 percent from 1999 to 2008. Experts say the aging Hispanic/Latino population will grow more rapidly than other ethnic minority group by 2028.

“When care is centered around the residents’ needs, it makes it easier for us as Latinos to trust the care of our mom/dad to trained professionals especially knowing that we are allowed to be as involved as we want to be,” said Fanny Rodriguez, an administrator for the Country Villa Wilshire Nursing Home in Los Angeles.

As more Latinos enter nursing homes, more accomodations have to be made. In the article, Rodriguez notes that at her facility residents are given “resident centered care”. This can involved making a special ethnic meal that a resident might request. Also, several staff speak Spanish and communicate with residents in Spanish.

The article mentions that outside care-giving services have increased among Latinos in the past five years. Home care provider services are growing and are becoming a preferred option among families.

Finally, issues such as terminal illnesses play a part in whether a family can provide proper care for an elderly family member. Illnesses such as diabetes, dementia, and other chronic and terminal illnesses are rising in Hispanic communities. Some illnesses require 24/7 care, which some families cannot provide.

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On Friday, the Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare notified Millcreek Manor officials that they could not sell 88 bed licenses to Pleasant Ridge Manor. According to an article on GoErie.com, this decision could affect plans to consolidate another nursing home, Pleasant Ridge Manor.

“We’re looking at what our options are. I think everyone is shocked, and no one saw this coming,” said Robert Smith, chief executive at Pleasant Ridge.

Millcreek Manor is planning to expand at a new facility, and county officials had previously accepted the offer for the bed licenses as part of plans for a new, combined Pleasant Ridge Manor.

A new survey by the long-term care insurer, Genworth Financial, reports that over the past year costs have increased for living in a long-term care facility, while home care costs have stayed flat.

According to an article on McKnights.com, the daily cost for a semi-private room increased 3.4% since 2011, while the rate for a private room increased 4.2%. New Jersey had the most expensive rate for assisted-living facilities, with costs around $5,713 per month.

But costs for home health aide services, such as cooking or running errands, saw no increase at all. According the the Genworth report, home care rates are low because of “increased competition among agencies and the availability of unskilled labor.”

The sweltering heat of the past few days may be uncomfortable for most of us, but for elderly men and women, it can be fatal. In a recent article on the AikenStandard.com, we read about the investigation into the death of an 84-year-old nursing home resident that took place over the weekend at a South Carolina nursing facility.

The county coroner planned an autopsy on the woman earlier this week after the resident collapsed in the nursing home, later dying at a local hospital. The coroner said the air conditioning in one of the home’s trhee wings was not working properly. A nursing home spokesman said the air conditioners were working, but were struggling to cool the building after temperatures reached 105 degrees.

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A new study published in a recent issue of the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society finds that one in five new nursing home patients suffer a fall within one month of admission. But higher levels of staffing with certified nursing assistants reduces that risk.

An article on USNews.com reports that the study included Medicare/Medicaid data from more than 230,000 first-time nursing home residents admitted to nearly 1,000 facilities in the U.S. in 2006. Of those patients, 21 percent had at least 1 fall during their first 30 days at the home.

When the researchers looked for reasons that might contribute to the number of falls, they found that fewer falls happened when there were more certified nursing assistants (CNAs) on staff. This may be due to the fact that CNAs provide hands-on care during activities where falls take place, such as dressing, using the bathroom, and moving around.