How’s this for unconventional: The Ecumen chain of 15 Minnesota nursing homes has launched Project Awakenings, which calls for treating residents’ behavioral problems without resorting to antipsychotic drugs. The problems are real. Residents have physical and mental disorders, and they are often in pain, frightened, alone, and confused. In the worst cases, they react with […]
Minnesota Nursing Homes Seek to End the Stupor Read More »
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services compile data about nursing homes, and about nursing home residents. Yesterday, NPR News Investigations published an interactive graphic of the level of independence among U.S. nursing home residents. This graphic is quite cool! You start by choosing an independence measure you want to examine from the residents’ ability
Independence Among U.S. Nursing Home Residents Read More »
Aging isn’t always dignified. That’s especially true for people with dementia. Alzheimer’s disease dismantles a person’s life piece by piece: short-term memory is the first to go, followed by long-term memory, recognition of family members, recognition of self, all cognitive abilities. In addition, a person loses physical capabilities–the ability to walk, to talk, to balance,
Dementia in Nursing Homes Requires Special Care…and Compassion Read More »
Medication errors cause at least one death every day, and injure approximately 1.3 million people annually in the United States, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. A new alert system designed to inform hospital and health system pharmacists, physicians and nurses of dangerous or life-threatening medication errors hopes to reduce such errors. For more
New Medication Alert System Read More »
Dementia is one of the most feared outcomes of aging. New research shows that eating fish is linked to preventing dementia while eating beef is linked to increasing the likelihood of developing dementia. Please click for The New York Times full article.
Eating Fish May Ward Off Dementia Read More »
For a number of years, attorneys for patients have observed what appears to be a disturbing pattern of jury verdicts in favor of physicians who have committed clear malpractice and seriously injured patients. We attorneys who represent patients whose lives have been damaged or even ended because of poor medical care, have been saddened by
Medical Malpractice Payments Hit Record Lows Read More »
Elected officials in Kansas are hoping to require that nursing homes have backup power for heating and cooling during power outages, believing that all nursing homes should have a generator or to be able to get a generator within five hours. Commissioner Pat Collins says commissioners have heard unconfirmed reports that during an ice storm,
Does Your Nursing Home Have Emergency Power? Read More »
The first decision in choosing a nursing home is to determine the level of care needed. If a nursing home is needed, it’s important to visit and take the tour. And don’t go just once. “Go back again and go back in the evenings or on the weekends because staffing is different during those times,”
Considering a Nursing Home? Take a Tour With Your Senses. Read More »
Residents of a Michigan nursing home suffered repeated physical and sexual abuse at the hands of their fellow residents in 2006-07, a pattern of violence that nursing home management failed to stem or report, Michigan state officials alleged. Abuses uncovered at Tendercare Health Center-Birchwood, 2950 LaFrainer Road in Garfield Township, resulted in fines and prompted
Vulnerable Nursing Home Residents Subject to Assault Read More »
The Australian Department of Health and Ageing reports that nearly 25% of males entering nursing homes in that country die within the first three months, and a third of aged care residents survive less than a year. Men fare worst than women, with about half dying within a year, and only 12 per cent living
High Male Mortality Rates In Nursing Homes Read More »