I was recently having a conversation with a family member over nursing home staffing.  He was very frustrated that the facility his mother was in would not put another CNA on her hall during the day.  He said that the staff was leaving because they were overloaded. This is a common concern with many families and many nursing home staff members and administrators as well.  What do you do when your budget doesn’t allow you to add...

Vince Lombardi is known as one of the most successful football coaches in the history of the game.  He had a habit of creating winners.  His focus, however, was on fine-tuning each player – helping them become the best they could be.  A lesson can be taken from this as we each have our own team that we coach everyday in the nursing home.  Have your staff become complacent, just meeting the minimums?  What are we doing each day to...

I was having a conversation recently with a couple of other people in the industry.  We were discussing what’s the worst thing about starting out as a new administrator or leader in the nursing home environment. Lack of experience?  Sure.  Dealing with difficult families?  You bet.  Surveys?  Ding, ding.  All those can be very overwhelming for a rookie in our world.  However, I have to say that one of the worst things I had to...

Taking on a facility?  Want to make sure you don’t make the same mistake that so many administrators before you have in the same building?  It’s all about building your team of department heads and key personnel.  How do you make sure you’re not letting problem employees hang around too long?  They haven’t really done anything to get harsh disciplinary action right now.  Their annual eval is months away.  Yet,...

You’ve seen him.  You may have worked for him or he may just be a colleage.  I hope he doesn’t work for you or else you’ve got some work to do.  His name is Peter.  And he is incompetent in his job. The Peter Principle is the principle that “in a hierarchy every employee tends to rise to their level of incompetence” (from Wikipedia).  It was formulated in 1969 by Dr. Laurence J. Peter and Raymond Hull....

Here’s another one: http://www.wusa9.com/rss/local_article.aspx?storyid=113473 From Peggy Fox, 9NEWS NOW & wusa9.com ARLINGTON, Va. (WUSA) — It may be one of the largest nursing home abuse cases in history. Nearly a dozen employees at Potomac Center nursing home at 1785 S. Hayes Street in Arlington have been indicted. Two of them are already convicted. “My husband’s diaper, I would come in 12 hours later, the...