Literature Review

New report blasts nursing home citations, rate of abuse tagsMcKnights Long-Term Care News, by Josh Henreckson; 3/20/24An organization dedicated to helping seniors find care issued a report Tuesday raising alarm about the number of nursing home abuse citations in 2023, but senior care leaders say a more punitive approach to surveys is actually hurting residents and their facilities. The SeniorLiving.org report used last year’s Medicare data to highlight that nursing homes received nearly 95,000 health citations during that time frame. Of that number, nearly 7,700 — or approximately 8% — were citations for abuse, neglect or exploitation. 

Palliative Care Movement achieves significant progress in California California Health Care Foundation, by Claudia Boyd-Barrett; 3/19/24 ... Palliative care has taken root in California over the past 15 years, driven by hundreds of leaders within health plans, hospitals, clinics, home care agencies, advocacy and education organizations, and state government. ... Some of California’s greatest palliative care progress has been accomplished in programs serving people at the lowest income levels through the state’s Medi-Cal program and through public health care systems.

For-profit nursing home owners rebut report that left few untarnished McKnights Long-Term Care, by Kimberly Marselas; 3/18/24 A brutal takedown of private nursing home ownership published last week included both pointed and widespread attacks on the role of for-profit companies in the sector, adding to stakeholders’ fears that negative characterizations will stymie much-needed future investment. ... However, what the article failed to highlight, providers and their representatives pointed out to McKnight’s Long-Term Care News Friday, are the investments many for-profits providers are pouring into quality and innovation efforts in a field with historically low margins — margins that they said dried up during the pandemic’s crisis days.Editor's Note: See the original article (posted above this summary) this article rebuts, "For-profit nursing homes are cutting corners on safety and draining resources with financial shenanigans - especially at midsize chains that dodge public scrutiny."

[UPDATED] Skilled Nursing giant PACS Group files for IPO as it looks to expand footprint Skilled Nursing News, by Zahida Siddiqi; 3/14/24 PACS Group filed for an initial public offering with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday, citing focus on growth plans in its filing. ... The Farmington, Utah-based PACS Group is one of the largest skilled nursing providers with more than 200 nursing facilities across nine states and serves over 20,000 patients daily. It plans to list on the NYSE under the symbol PACS. 

Specialized nursing facility clinicians improve end-of-life care Cornell Chronicle, by Marijke Vroomen Durning, Weill Cornell Medicine; 3/15/24 Specialized nursing facility clinicians, or SNFists, may decrease the likelihood of nursing home residents experiencing stressful hospitalizations and improve the quality of life in their last days, according to researchers from Weill Cornell Medicine. The paper, published March 15 in JAMA Network Open, examined how SNFists uniquely impacted the care of nursing home residents in their last 90 days, compared with those cared for by other clinicians. This large-scale study is the first of its kind. 

Palliative Care integration on the rise Hospice News, by Jim Parker; 3/13/24A range of medical specialties are incorporating palliative care principles into their care models. The trend points to ways that patients might receive palliative services through new avenues, such as geriatrics, primary care or home health care. 

All-inclusive senior care center opens first Florida facility in Tampa Tampa Beacon, by Mike Camunas; 3/11/24 It’s a one-stop shop for senior medical services — and social activities. On March 4, InnovAge unveiled its new, state-of-the-art Senior Care Center in Tampa, marking the medical service provider’s first facility in Florida. The 33,500-square-foot facility in a renovated building provides doctor visits, dental care, social activities, and even transportation for seniors. The facility ... can serve up to 1,300 patients or participants through PACE, or Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly, a Medicare and Medicaid program that helps people meet their health care needs in the community instead of going to a nursing home or other care facility.

Navigating Aging: Does our society simply not care about our vulnerable older population? KFF Health News, by Judith Graham; 3/10/24 ... The pandemic made things worse. Prejudice against older adults is nothing new, but “it feels more intense, more hostile” now than previously, said Karl Pillemer, 69, a professor of psychology and gerontology at Cornell University. “I think the pandemic helped reinforce images of older people as sick, frail, and isolated — as people who aren’t like the rest of us,” he said. “And human nature being what it is, we tend to like people who are similar to us and be less well disposed to ‘the others.'" 

Seniors more likely to let conditions escalate into emergency if their only care options are digital, poll finds McKnights Senior Living, by Aaron Dorman; 3/7/24 Although residents in senior living communities and nursing homes are becoming more accepting of artificial intelligence and other tools such as remote monitoring systems, that doesn’t mean they don’t still strongly prefer human caregivers to manage their healthcare needs, a recent poll finds. ... Among older adult survey respondents who had dealt with a recent emergency, 33% said that they felt as if the incident could have been averted if they had had access to a live, in-person caregiver to manage their health concerns and needs.

Scary ‘state’: Two-thirds of nursing home operators fear closure without staffing relief McKnights Long-Term Care News, by Josh Henreckson; 3/6/24Of nearly 450 nursing home providers surveyed, two-thirds are concerned that escalating workforce challenges may force them to close their facility. More than 70% of nursing homes reported staffing levels lower than before the COVID-19 pandemic, with fully 99% saying they are hiring for open positions.

‘Nothing less than a crisis’ as 45 percent of SNFs cite serious financial issues in AHCA survey McKnights Senior Living, by Kathleen Steele Gaivin; 3/6/24 Forty-five percent of skilled nursing facility participants in a new survey said they are “either operating in the red or barely breaking even.” The American Health Care Association survey of 441 nursing home providers, the results of which were released Tuesday, found that 42% of SNFs are operating on a total margin of 0% to 3%, and only 13% are operating with a total margin that is greater than 3%. AHCA’s State of the Sector Report also found that staffing challenges remain.

About 1,000 Minneapolis–Saint Paul nursing home staff go on strike KFF Health News, Morning Briefing; 3/6/24CBS News notes it's one of the biggest strikes seen in the industry in Minnesota. In Connecticut, Gov.Ned Lamont and the state's largest health workers union announced a deal for a 26% rise for home care aides.

Scientists reveal that nearly all older Americans follow one of nine trajectories in their last three years of life SciTechDaily, by Rutgers University; 3/2/24A Rutgers Health analysis of millions of Medicare records has laid the groundwork for improving end-of-life care by demonstrating that nearly all older Americans follow one of nine trajectories in their last three years of life. “Identifying which paths people actually take is a necessary precursor to identifying which factors send different people down different paths and designing interventions that send more people down whatever path is right for them,” said Olga Jarrín, the Hunterdon Professor of Nursing Research at Rutgers and corresponding author of the study published in BMC Geriatrics.