Don’t you just love a deficiency-free survey?  I had the survey team exit today and they didn’t cite anything.  What a great feeling!  That doesn’t mean that deficiencies do not exist.  It simply means that we managed the survey in such a way that anything that did come up, we had an answer for, had QA’d, or had addressed in some other fashion.  I’ve had my share of cleaning up bad surveys for others,...

Here’s another horrible incident that has happened in a nursing home facility. It’s the negative outcomes like this that continue to plague our industry and give the public such a poor perception of what a nursing home is really like. From the Herald Sun: Widow Gwendoline Gleeson was put in a restraining belt and placed on a toilet at Barrabill House nursing home in Seymour in August last year and forgotten by staff who later...

Hi, guys.  We had an update to the website theme over the weekend.  Let me know if you like it.   If, however, it is not displaying correctly for you, you may have to clean your cache.  (Google “clean your cache” and that will give you the instructions to delete the old cookies and temporary files that made the old layout load quicker.)   Have a great day!

This is a true account of what I found at one of the facilities I took over a couple of years ago.  It demonstrates that one problem can be so much bigger than any of us realize. “A Salmonella outbreak?  How did that happen?” I asked.  (Read below to find out.) I had recently taken over a small facility in a rural Southern town.  The facility had problems and the staff was pretty good at running off administrators and...

Here’s a quick tip to get your facility’s name out to people who may have a need for you at some point.  First, develop a mailer that lists the services you provide and any FREE educational programs or assistance your facility provides or has scheduled.  For example, some facilities may: Host workshops on long term care insurance or financing Provide monthly education on Alzheimers Disease or related illnesses Provide...

Tell me how your morning was today.  Did you jump out of bed before dawn raring to go?  Did you have a power shower?  Did you brush your teeth like a champ?  Did you peel rubber out of the driveway because you couldn’t wait to get to work? No?    Well, not many people do.  Many of us in this industry get up feeling like it’s just another day.  Most of us peel rubber out of the driveway because we’re running...

I have noticed a trend in some of our states.  As a way to save state funds, many of our states are pushing the Home & Comunity Services Programs.  This service falls under the Medicaid waiver program and is unheard of for many nursing home administrators … until they start seeing their referrals drop. Here’s an example - in Tennessee their Medicaid program is called TennCare.  TennCare’s longterm care CHOICES...

I’m always amazed when someone tells me they want to become a nursing home administrator.  Especially knowing what I know now.  When I started out, I simply thought that it was a respectable career and that it was all financially oriented.  Boy, was I wrong!  I had no idea that you’re involved in every area of running a skilled nursing facility and have to make decisions you’ve never even thought about before. I have...

Here’s a quick and easy reference to find your facility’s historical survey results and see exactly what was cited.   This is especially important as you get close to your nursing home survey window.  If you were cited before, take my word, they’ll look again to see if you’re maintaining compliance. Click here to find the Nursing Home Survey 2567 for your facility.  (Pdf courtesy of...