The Covid-19 pandemic shined a light on how hard it is for long-term care facilities such as nursing homes and assisted living facilities to balance residents’ health risks with their desire for independence and autonomy. A few have found the secret sauce. Most have not. A new study by the RAND Corporation, a California research firm, shows how facilities can [...]
What have we learned from the 50,000+ covid-19 deaths of residents and staff in long-term care facilities? As the pandemic spreads aggressively in states such as California, Texas, Arizona, and Florida, we are about to find out. Multiple studies found that facility-based covid-19 cases and deaths from March-May closely tracked the experience in surrounding communities: If a facility was located [...]
Someday, most of us will return to life before COVID-19. Nursing homes will not. The deaths of more than 16,000 of their residents from COVID-19 has profoundly disrupted senior living facilities--especially nursing homes-- and will drive historic change in the industry. Robert Kramer, president of the consulting firm Nexus Insights and a long-time observer of nursing home finances, told me, [...]
The Trump Administration has finally said it would require nursing homes to report cases of COVID-19 to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and, eventually, to families of residents. The move is welcome, but it is far too little and, for many families, far too late. On Friday, The New York Times reported that more than 36,500 residents [...]
Last week, I suggested that in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, nursing homes may need to take patients from over-burdened hospitals. At the same time, care settings such as assisted living facilities (ALFs) might have to accept nursing home residents who must be relocated to make room for those post-acute patients. Now, it looks like that is beginning to [...]
The coronavirus pandemic is stressing hospital capacity to its limits, and one way to reduce this pressure it to move patient care downstream. That means keeping as many patients as possible out of the hospital in the first place, and getting those who have been hospitalized discharged as quickly as possible to make room for other, more critical patients. The [...]
You’ve probably heard somebody say, “assisted living is the new nursing home.” A new study suggests that, in important ways, it is true. People living in residential care communities, including assisted living, care homes, or adult group homes, look a lot like those who once lived in nursing homes. They suffer from serious chronic conditions, need assistance with daily activities [...]
Assisted living facilities (ALFs) may be going the way of cable TV. Still around, but with a limited future. Their residents are changing. Even as their needs become more complicated, they are demanding less institutional-like care. At the same time, assisted living will have to find its place in a world where medical and social care are becoming better coordinated [...]
This week, the PBS program Frontline investigated care at the nation’s largest assisted living company—Emeritus Corp. The program’s message was powerful—and highly controversial: Residents of some Emeritus facilities are dying as a result of poor care by insufficient and poorly trained staff and a lack of government regulation. I can’t speak to what’s happening at Emeritus, a for-profit company that has [...]
What do consumers want to know about assisted living facilities? I was recently asked to participate in a project aimed at answering that question. So, I asked some residents of facilities and their families, as well as people who are considering whether to move in. I thought their questions were interesting, so, I’ll share them and try to provide a [...]