The Texas Department of Aging and Disability Services (DADS) informed nursing facility administrators about the Nursing Facility Quality Review Process for 2008. This year, the Nurse Aid Competency Evaluation Services Plus Foundation, Inc. will conduct evaluations, accessing residents' clinical records and behavior monitoring logs. Download the letter for more information. According to a memo to Regulatory Service Regional Directors and State Office Managers, surveyors must accept and display … [Read more...] about Information Letter and Memo for Nursing Facilities
Footage of Physical Abuse in a Nursing Facility
ABC News has released footage of a health care worker beating a resident whom, it appears, was not cooperating with attempts to care for him. The beating appears quite vicious. The family had, unknown to facility staff, installed a hidden camera in the room of the resident, who resides in a Baltimore, Maryland nursing home. As you know, here in Texas, the law addresses covert monitoring--but lays out no real and affirmative sanctions against residents and family members who do it. So, … [Read more...] about Footage of Physical Abuse in a Nursing Facility
Texas Register Updates: Medicaid Payment Limits; Patients Rights
The Texas Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC) will submit Amendment Number 747 to the Texas State Plan for Medical Assistance. From the September 8 Texas Register: Amendment 747 revises the methodology used by the State to estimate the Medicaid Upper Payment Limit (UPL) for hospital inpatient services. The UPL is the federal limit on Medicaid payments to a group of hospitals and is determined under Federal regulations as a reasonable estimate of the amount that would be paid for the … [Read more...] about Texas Register Updates: Medicaid Payment Limits; Patients Rights
New CPR Guidelines From AHA
KidneyNotes.com posts about the new CPR guidelines. As the post notes, the highlights are: *The ratio of compressions-to-ventilations has been changed to 30:2 *Rescuers now deliver 1 shock (360J monophasic) followed by CPR, not 3 shocks *Lay rescuers no longer check for circulation *Many other algorithms have been simplified These are published in the Nov 29, 2005 issue of Circulation. KidneyNotes has formatted some easy links to the above for you to read. Click here to see … [Read more...] about New CPR Guidelines From AHA
Unintended Consequences
Back last November, I wrote about rumblings in Florida to require criminal background checks on prospective resident. In Illinois, they've apparently passed such a law and are now about to suffer the consequences:Emergency rules implementing the recently signed legislation require all 100,000 current nursing home residents to undergo a criminal background check and be checked against sex offender databases maintained by the Illinois State Police and the Illinois Department of Corrections. The … [Read more...] about Unintended Consequences
Do Your Residents Use Plavix?
The New York Times published a piece about a study raising questions about its safety:Patients taking Plavix, a popular and expensive antistroke drug, experience more than 12 times as many ulcers as patients who take aspirin plus a heartburn pill, a study to be published today in The New England Journal of Medicine found.Up to half of those now taking Plavix do so because their doctors assume that Plavix is safer on the stomach than aspirin, said Dr. Francis K. L. Chan, the study's lead author. … [Read more...] about Do Your Residents Use Plavix?
Criminal Checks of Nursing Home Residents?
On November 15, 2004, CBS news reported on an incident involving alleged resident-on- resident sexual abuse in a Florida nursing home. The resident-suspect, a man in his 80's, had been found wandering the streets by Florida law enforcement. A Florida court declared him a "vulnerable adult ... in need of protective services." Thus, the officials caused him to be admitted to the nursing home--where he allegedly sexually abused another resident.Buried further down in the story, it is noted that … [Read more...] about Criminal Checks of Nursing Home Residents?
