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Friday, March 20, 2020

Best of Week

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Post-Acute Care Forum is Going to Arizona!

This event is specifically designed for decision-makers at skilled nursing facilities and home health agencies (Manager, Director, Owners/Operators, or VP), who have projects in the pipeline and are actively sourcing solutions. Apply Here

Home Health

Employers brace for paid leave brought on by coronavirus

Just as employers were taking a look at a bill in Congress aimed at providing paid leave for employees affected by the coronavirus/COVID-19 pandemic, the House-passed legislation took on changes in the Senate. As of early March 17, no Senate vote had been scheduled. Worries from business interests have resulted in a scaling back of …

Skilled Nursing Facility

SNF staff workers should be screened at every shift

In its new guidance released March 13, CMS requires SNFs to take staff members’ temperatures and perform other screening tasks at the beginning of each shift: Screen all staff at the beginning of their shift for fever and respiratory symptoms. Actively take their temperature and document absence of shortness of breath, new or change in …

Featured Article

5 Ways Interoperability Can Benefit Home-Based Care

The digital age has created an overhaul of technology within the healthcare industry – transforming health records into collections of electronic data that should simplify administration processes for providers everywhere.

Post-Acute Survey

How has COVID-19 affected your facility?

As COVID-19 spreads throughout the U.S., LTC providers face unique challenges to keep their high-risk residents safe. In an effort to fully understand the challenges SNFs are currently facing as a result of the virus, we’d like readers to complete a survey to tell us about their challenges. In order to aid home health and

Private Duty

Use village strategy to help seniors stay independent, simultaneously get referrals

Getting involved with the village movement may be an untapped opportunity for private duty agencies. Working with villages has resulted in a steady stream of referrals for Osborne Home Care in Rye, N.Y. About 10% of the agency’s referrals come from villages, estimates Michele Thomas, executive vice president of Osborne Home Care in Rye, N.Y. …

Skilled Nursing Facility

All visitors restricted from SNFs except for end-of-life situations

The new measures CMS announced today, which supersede prior CMS guidance, constitute the agency’s most aggressive and decisive recommendations with respect to nursing home safety in the face of the spread of COVID-19. They include: Restricting all visitors, effective immediately, with exceptions for compassionate care, such as end-of-life situations. In these cases, visitors will be …

PPS Alert for Long-Term Care

Infection control in the dietary area

Although infection control is often given great attention within nursing, the dietary area, and its interaction with the infection control program, should be given more attention. Residents in skilled nursing care environments, often have varying degrees of immunocompromised status. Because of this, controlling the potentially invasive impact of food and dietary infection is as important as following sterile procedure for placement of an IV.