We are engaged in a battle to reduce the unnecessary use of antipsychotics to control behavior in our long term care facilities, favoring the use of behavioral interventions instead. Turns out that our struggles in this effort are not unique to the United States.
Nearly two out every five European elders who suffer from dementia are being given antipsychotic drugs, a new study has found. Click HERE to read more.
Care practices will have to be reevaluated based on the increasing number of openly homosexual adults, particularly as they age.
Image source: www.newsdiscovery.com
Gay marriage has been legalized by thirty two states and District of Columbia. President Obama, once a adversary of same-sex marriage now believe that “The Constitution’s equal protection clause should protect all marriages, gay or straight”.
DuVall says “He is glad to see so many advocates take on the problem of anti-gay discrimination head on”.
Read more here- http://www.providermagazine.
Medicare has revised the 5 start rating system which is used to evaluate nursing home performance. The reason for revising rating system is that the system does not do anything fruitful. An Investigation piece in the New York Times shed some light on the difference between reality and rating. Ratings were positioned on the basis of annual health inspections and on 2 measures reported by the nursing home itself. The revised rating system will introduce external audits of nursing home quality and electronically submitted staffing data, as well as by incorporating some new measures such as the proportion of residents taking antipsychotic medications, hopes to overcome the shortcomings of the existing rating approach.
There are now so many rating agencies, using very different rating scales. The key point is that single grade cannot grasp all features of medical facility’s performance that are suitable to all the group, individual and organization whom the ratings are designed.
So will the revised ratings of nursing homes (coming in January, 2015) make grades meaningful?
Read more: http://blog.drmurielgillick.com/2014/10/rating-ratings.html
The Medicare Modernization Act of 2004 didn’t really modernize Medicare.It is really important to have coverage for prescribed drugs, which is a huge support for older individuals. Medicare was pretty much complete apart from this one change, albeit most important one.The problem with the approach which turns 40 this year is that most of the illness are critical requires hospitalization.
Today, most illness is long-lasting illness costliest patients typically have multiple chronic conditions.The good news is that JAMA this week entitled “Optimizing health for persons with multiple chronic conditions,” is that Medicare has made a number of changes that move the program into the modern world.
Read more: http://blog.drmurielgillick.com/2014/08/modernizing-medicare.html
Problem about practicing medicine in nursing home is many medical problems which includes cognitive impairment.
The major challenge about nursing home is Medicare billing. The problematic was that in the nursing home environment, many of patients were demented and couldn’t possibly give a coherent history.
No wonder physicians often respond to a call from the nursing home about a sick patient with an order to send the patient to the hospital for assessment. Send a weak nursing home patient to the emergency room and he has so about a 90% chance of being admitted. So instead of paying a physician an appropriate amount for making a visit to the nursing home.
Image source: Nurse Practitioner | Family Practice | Gallup, NM
Read more: http://blog.drmurielgillick.com/2014/09/penny-wise-pound-foolish.html
On Wednesday, July 23, Dr. Heidi Keeler, course faculty for Gero Nurse Prep, Dr. Catherine Bevil, Director of Continuing Nursing Education at UNMC, and Tim Gilbert, Office and Business Associate for Gero Nurse Prep, attended a workshop hosted by Vetter Health Services. The workshop’s target audience was long term care administrators and directors of nursing.
The guest speaker was Dr. David Gifford, Senior Vice President, Quality & Regulatory Affairs for AHCA/NCAL. Dr. Gifford conducted the 2 day workshop to forward the quality mission of the organization. Drs. Keeler and Bevil also presented at the meeting, and delivered a message concerning the benefits of certification and outlining how Gero Nurse Prep can help nurses achieve certification. The workshop was very effective at promoting and maintaining a culture of quality in long term care.
Urinary incontinence is a problem for a large proportion of older adults, regardless of their residence. It is important for Gero nurses to understand the complexity of the problem and also to be ready with information and patient education regarding possible treatment options and referrals.
See the article below for more information. 
2014 NNFA/NALA Fall Convention
September 16, 2014 | Booth #71
La Vista Conference Center
12520 Westport Parkway
I-80 Exit #442
La Vista, NE.
402-331-7400
Special Offer!
We are offering $100 off the course fee to people who will visit the GNP booth#71 and get the code at GNP booth#71 during the convention. The offer will be valid from September 16, 2014 and expires on December 31, 2014.
Some challenging news from top experts in elder care-see what they are saying about weight and health in older adults.
Diabetes appears to be loosening its awful grip on the elderly, and one leading geriatrician is hoping that caretakers will reassess their tactics in the battle of the bulge.
A report earlier this year found that the worst complications of elderly diabetes fell off dramatically between 1990 and 2010. Many factors might account for it, St. Louis University School of Medicine Professor John Morley says in a new editorial, but there is “one factor that can clearly be excluded”—obesity.
“In addition, there is evidence in nondiabetic individuals that obesity may be slightly protective,” Morley writes. “There is also evidence that weight loss may accelerate mortality in older persons with diabetes mellitus. This has been termed the obesity paradox.”
Read more about it here – http://www.providermagazine.com/news/Pages/0714/Geriatrician-Urges-%27Rethinking%27-of-Elderly-Obesity.aspx
