I originally got started in longterm care through the Dietary Department.  I had previous restaurant experience, so that was a plus on my resume when I applied for a position at a local V.A. nursing home. I was hired as the Foodservice Supervisor and within a short period of time became the Dietary Manager.  One of the first problems I faced was the poor staff morale, poor quality of food produced, and multiple dietary complaints on food...

“What gets measured gets managed.” Peter Drucker Share this:FacebookShareStumbleUponDiggEmailRedditPrint

A common problem I have heard is that the Marketing Director in the nursing home doesn’t  exactly know what the volume of sales calls he/she should be producing.  The answer is simple:  Whatever number fills your beds with new admissions.  Ok, that was not really an answer, was it?  What you should be focused on are the calls that generate viable referrals for your building.  It is easy, however, to make less calls than what is...

A new addition to our categories on Nursing Home Pro – The Wall of Shame – to highlight some of the less fortunate events we deal with.  Hopefully, we can learn from the mistakes of others so the same things don’t happen to us. This is an article taken from the Chicago Sun Times http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/2761924,lawsuit-rainbow-beach-nursing-center-093010.article I would hate to be in their shoes right now....

I had someone tell me recently that they did not know what to do with a bad employee.  My first thought was, “What do you mean you don’t know what to do?  Teach them, coach them, hold them accountable, write them up when necessary, give them an action plan, or get rid of them.   What’s so hard about that?” I guess there’s a lot hard about that.  Many times these things are not done because the supervisor...

A common complaint I hear revolves around the medical director and his or her unwillingness to perform the most basic duties of their role or that they are standing in the way of a facility’s progress. I’ve seen medical directors who wouldn’t come to see their patients regularly.  I’ve seen them fail to keep their progress notes up.  I’ve seen medical directors dictate what home health  or hospice company a...

Typically, a new administrator will be basically thrown into their position without a ton of training.  Then, you get the pleasure of being grilled on every aspect of your facility’s performance by your regional, district, or corporate team usually on a monthly basis on an operations review conference call.  What we’d like to accomplish here is to give you some pointers on how to be prepared for your monthly ops review call...

One of the mistakes that many of us make when our facility is census-challenged is to begin taking and admitting whatever referrals we can get.  This can create tons of problems in your facility.  Obviously, a good rule of thumb is to ensure that clinically you can take of the patient, that financially they have a payor source, and you’re not going to lose money on them.  However, there are other factors to consider.  Namely, is...

I have a picture in my office that I have had for several years.  I bought it back when I was at a particularly stressful facility going through what must have been the world’s worst survey process.  The State just wouldn’t clear this facility and I was out of ideas.  Sometimes, when you are having those moments of desperation, you want to give up. I bought this picture to remind me that other people go through the same...