danny

Medicare’s new rules are penalizing hospitals, home care providers and (soon to come) nursing homes for readmissions to the hospital. Patients with diagnoses such as congestive heart failure (CHF), heart attack and pneumonia who readmit to the hospital within 30 days of discharge will trigger penalties to the providers involved.

It is imperative that you create a marketing strategy that involves helping the various providers in the healthcare continuum reduce hospital readmissions. When creating this strategy, there are a number of tactics you should consider executing.

After living with his oldest daughter for a couple years, Pop (my mother's dad) was moved to a nursing home on a hill, which had been a hospital. From the late 1960s and early 1970s, my family visited him at the nursing home in a small Pennsylvania town.

Our brains were thought of in the past to be trainable up to a certain age and then fairly set. Quotes like "you can't teach an old dog new tricks" exemplify this thought. Trying to learn a new language at forty cements the idea. 

Janeen (pseudonym) is the heavyset resident I blogged about this past December. She has lived in this facility for a few years and has been in several different rooms. Because Janeen likes loud music and constantly rearranges the room, she runs off most roommates. Now she is alone in a semi-private room.

One of my previous blog posts talked about the idea of risk and how we have a strong bias toward managing downside risk (the likelihood that things will come out worse than expected) in aging services. It seems that as elders become more dependent and need more services, the issue of upside risk is treated as an impossibility, except when someone is in a rehabilitation setting following a stroke or bone fracture, for example.

The tragic events surrounding the deadly nightclub fire that happened over the weekend in Brazil should remind occupancies of all types to focus on fire safety every day of the year. The codes and regulations that all long-term care facilities are required to follow help ensure a fire safe environment of care. Different levels of care and licensure have different fire and life safety requirements.

When I got my new computer last September, I transferred all my files to a 16 GB flash drive for the first time. In the past I used zip drive disks or an external hard drive. But computer techs convinced me that a flash drive was the way to go.

I have always known that backing up my data is very important. But I do not like to be reminded to do it. I also feared I would lose data if I made an error backing up. Also, using an external hard drive plugged in constantly can cause my computer to run slower.

Last week my caregiver/driver shortened my nails and applied nail hardener. She said two fingernails on my right hand were red at the tips. That concerned me as any skin issue would. Since it is difficult for me to see my right hand, she assured me that otherwise my nails looked all right.

OK, admit it: coming back to work in January is hard. It just might be the hardest month of the year.

After all, the holidays just flew by—Thanksgiving was 8 weeks ago already. It seems like it was only 10 minutes ago that we were carving the turkey!

Business pretty much grinds to a halt at the end of the year. We spend time with our families, we rest, we play and many of us take our annual vacation. We review the past year and make resolutions for the new year.

While prohibited in smoke compartments where residents are present in skilled nursing facilities, portable electric space heaters continue to find their way into long-term care facilities of all types. SNFs, as well as other healthcare facilities—including hospitals that are required to comply with NFPA #101, The Life Safety Code (2000 edition) in accordance with CMS regulations—should be familiar with this section of the code:

18.7.8 (New) and 19.7.8 (Existing) – Portable Space Heating Devices

Many times in my more than 16 years of living in nursing homes I have been in the middle of a conversation between the aides caring for me. Usually they came into my room chatting and just continued. I always felt weird and a bit like an eavesdropper. Sometimes, when I could identify the topic, I paid attention. But most of the time I tried to ignore it.

With the exit of the holidays and the dropping of the Times Square ball, it’s time to dust off your 2012 Marketing Plans and update them for 2013. A marketing plan (as you know if you’ve read my other blogs) is a road map that your organization will be following to achieve its goals and objectives for revenue growth. In other words, a marketing plan is a description of the activities you and your team will execute to grow or maintain your business’ top line.