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. 

CNA Turnover Linked to Scheduling Choices, Staff Stability, Optimal Hours WorkedSkilled Nursing NewsDecember 19, 2023Part-time certified nursing assistants play a crucial role in providing patient care at skilled nursing facilities mired with staffing shortages, and yet they face high turnover rates. Washington State University analyzed the impact of scheduling decisions on part-time CNA turnover, addressing three key research questions related to hours worked and coworker variability. ... The study revealed a “U-shaped relationship” between hours worked and turnover—meaning too few hours or too many hours worked impacted turnover.

Leading Rural PACE Provider Coming to Northeast OhioNews ReleaseDecember 18, 2023Erie, PA—One Senior Care, a leading PACE provider to rural and Appalachian communities, is proud to announce that its program, LIFE-Northwestern Pennsylvania, has been selected by the Ohio Department of Aging to bring the Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE) to three counties—Ashtabula, Trumbull, and Mahoning—in Northeast Ohio. 

Iowa nursing homes wait up to 41 months for an ‘annual’ inspectionIowa Capital DispatchDecember 15, 2023The state of Iowa isn’t meeting the federally mandated standards for nursing home oversight, with some care facilities waiting up to 41 months for an annual inspection. Federal regulations require that no more than 15.9 months elapse between annual inspections at individual Medicaid-certified nursing homes. The regulations also require that, collectively, the state inspect all nursing homes on an average of 12.9 months, if not sooner.

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.

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.

Falling short—99% of Mississippi nursing homes don’t meet new staffing regsMississippi TodayDecember 13, 2023... In Mississippi, all but two of the 200 skilled nursing facilities—those licensed to provide medical care from registered nurses—would need to increase staffing levels under federal regulations the Biden administration proposed in September, according to data analyzed by Mississippi Today, USA TODAY and Big Local News at Stanford University. That’s in line with the national trend: Over the first quarter of 2023—from January to March—less than 1% of skilled nursing facilities in the U.S. met the draft rule’s two core standards of provider care. 

22 states to increase minimum wage on Jan. 1McKnight’s Senior LivingDecember 13, 2023Almost half of the states, along with 40 local jurisdictions, are set to ring in 2024 with increases to minimum wage, according to Polsinelli law firm. The 22 states with minimum wage increases coming in the new year: Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Vermont and Washington. 

Memory Care Gap—GAO Report Shows Less than 2.5% of Medicare Beneficiaries with Alzheimer’s Receive Cognitive AssessmentSenior Housing NewsDecember 13, 2023Between 2018 and last year, use of cognitive assessment and care plan services tripled, but few Medicare beneficiaries who qualify received the service, according to a recent study by the Government Accountability Office. The GAO study found that, at most, 2.4% of Medicare beneficiaries with a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease or a related disorder received this service. 

Demand for nurses continues to eclipse supply—reportMcKnight’s Senior LivingDecember 14, 2023Almost three years after the start of the pandemic, a shortage of registered nurses continues to eclipse the supply of qualified professionals. “The US shortage of registered nurses has been called a crisis. Burnout, staff turnover, a growing and aging baby-boomer population, and a lack of educators have contributed to high demand and undersupply, a longstanding problem aggravated by the COVID-19 pandemic,” according to a new report from ADP Research Institute. 

Report spots care planning gaps for nursing home residentsMcKnight’s Long Term Care NewsDecember 12, 2023A new report looks at what’s working to help residents in long-term care communities prioritize care planning and advanced care planning, or ACP. The study was published on Dec. 6 in The Journal of Long-Term Care. Researchers set out to look at studies and surveys on care planning interventions for older adults in long-term care communities. The team wanted to understand what types of programs are being used to drive better care planning overall

LeadingAge CEO Calls Out Political Inaction on ‘Dangerously Broken’ Nursing Home Funding SystemSkilled Nursing NewsDecember 12, 2023Decades-long underfunding of nursing homes continues to create unnecessary hardships for aging Americans as access issues deepen. And yet, attempts to change the current financial system have fallen on deaf ears. In an effort to get the attention of lawmakers in Washington, LeadingAge President and CEO Katie Smith Sloan took aim with this view at the long-term care financing system in an editorial for The Hill on Monday, calling reimbursement “dangerously broken.”