Literature Review

ProPublica Adds Ownership Information to Our Nursing Home DatabasePro PublicaDecember 20, 2023The quality of care that residents receive in a nursing home can be profoundly affected by who owns it, studies have shown. It’s not always clear who should be held accountable, though: Many nursing homes are owned by companies that are owned by other companies, obscuring who has the ultimate decision-making power. ... To help navigate the confusing world of nursing home ownership, ProPublica’s Nursing Home Inspect now publishes detailed ownership information for facilities and an upgraded search to help you sift through the information. 

St. Louis Nursing Home Closes Suddenly, Displacing Over 170 ResidentsNew York TimesDecember 19, 2023There was no warning when a line of vans showed up outside the largest nursing home in St. Louis Friday afternoon, workers at the home said. Older residents, some with dementia, were whisked away in wheelchairs while still wearing hospital gowns, employees of the Northview Village nursing home recalled. 

Joliet nurses likely to reject Ascension’s ‘last, best and final’ contract offerShaw Local News NetworkDecember 18, 2023Joliet, IL—The Illinois Nurses’ Association at Ascension St. Joseph—Joliet is voting on the hospital’s “last best and final offer” for a new contract and is expected to reject the contract proposal.

Announcing the Winners of the 2023 SHN Architecture & Design AwardsSenior Housing NewsDecember 18, 2023Senior Housing News, an Aging Media Network publication, is pleased to announce the winners of the 2023 Senior Housing News Architecture & Design Awards. Communities across the United States and the globe submitted new construction and renovation/repositioning projects this year, vying for top honors across 17 categories.Hospice

Study uncovers racial, geographic disparities in LTSS accessMcKnight’s Home Care DailyDecember 19, 2023Disparities in access to long-term services and supports (LTSS) create greater financial and health-related challenges for people of color, according to new research by healthcare research firm ATI Advisory. Using data from a University of Michigan Health and Retirement Study, the ATI study sampled 6,232 people aged 55 years old and living in home- or community-based settings. 

Staffing issues continue to drive reduced admissions in SNFsMcKnight’s Senior LivingDecember 18, 2023Nursing home providers continue to struggle with staffing challenges as they aim to reboot admissions in the post-pandemic era, according to the newly released results of a recent Ziegler CFO Hotline survey. “The demand for our SNF services is rising at a rate significantly higher than our labor force allows,” said one respondent. ... Forty-six percent of the respondents to the November survey indicated that staffing issues have forced a reduction in SNF admissions. 

Dozens of assisted-living residents died after wandering away unnoticedWashington PostDecember 17, 2023... Patients with Alzheimer’s disease and other cognitive problems walk away from assisted-living facilities just about every day in America, a pattern of neglect by an industry that charges families an average of $6,000 a month for the explicit promise of safeguarding their loved ones, a Washington Post investigation has found. Since 2018, more than 2,000 people have wandered away from assisted-living and dementia-care units or been left unattended outside, according to The Post’s exhaustive search of inspection results, incident reports and media accounts nationwide. 

Big Medicare Changes Coming in 2024AARP, 12/14/23By Dena BunisThe new year rings in more Rx drug savings, higher Part B premiums and new Advantage rules.

The (Surprisingly) Good News on Life Expectancy—It’s Still Going UpWall Street JournalDecember 15, 2023Over the past decade a number of alarming stories have chronicled the decline of U.S. life expectancy in the midst of rising overdose deaths, Covid-19, alcohol-related deaths and suicides. It turns out there are two ways to measure mortality and life expectancy, and the one you hear about the most paints a misleadingly pessimistic picture of the future. Last month the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said life expectancy, which hit a 25-year low in 2021, climbed to 74.8 years for men and 80.2 for women in 2022, but those were still well below prepandemic levels.

Nursing home COVID deaths climb, but vaccinations move slowly upward tooMcKnights Long-Term Care News, 12/15/23By Kimberly MarselasDeaths of nursing home patients from COVID-19 climbed as vaccination rates hit new lows last month, according to an updated analysis by the AARP Public Policy Institute and the Scripps Gerontology Center. ... But vaccinations, at first widely embraced by residents and later mandated for healthcare workers, drove infection and deaths rates down dramatically starting in 2021.

‘Stop the bleeding’—A year after Safe Staffing law, nurses report high patient loadsTimes Union (Albany, NY)December 15, 2023One year after New York’s minimum staffing law for hospitals went into effect, nurses continue to report exceptionally high patient loads as hospital leaders struggle to keep up with turnover rates. ... Implementation of the new regulations—from the establishment of committees to negotiate those institution-specific staffing standards to the mandate for hospitals to report departments’ actual staffing ratios to the state Department of Health annually—has been rocky across the state’s 222 hospitals.

‘It’s Water Grinding Away The Stone’—Senior Care Providers Face Common Challenges In Continuum ExpansionsHome Health Care NewsDecember 15, 2023Home-based care providers are no longer content delivering a standard set of care services. Instead, leaders at in-home care organizations are working strategically to enhance services, creating a more integrated care delivery model—a continuum of care. At Intrepid USA, this means pairing the company’s home health and hospice services more closely together. ... Strategically, creating a continuum of services allows providers to maintain relationships with clients and patients longer—before their needs become acute, all the way through to end of life.Notable Mentions: Susan Ponder-Stansel, CEO of Alivia Care.

Iowa Democrats, advocates call for hearings on nursing home care and oversightIowa Capital DispatchDecember 14, 2023Iowa Senate Democrats on Thursday called on the GOP-controlled Senate Oversight Committee to launch a bipartisan investigation into Iowa’s nursing homes. Calling it “a matter of life and death,” Sen. Claire Celsi, D-West Des Moines, the ranking member on the committee, formally requested the investigation in a Dec. 14 letter to committee chair Sen. Amy Sinclair, R-Allerton.