President Barack Obama’s reelection ensured that the Affordable Care Act (ACA) will be fully implemented and your organization needs to be prepared for its potential impact on your facility or service. Here are some important aspects of the law you must consider when making strategic and tactical decisions that will impact the marketing of your services.
A few months ago when my doctor began weaning me off an antidepressant I had taken for three years, blood tests were ordered. I learned my vitamin D level was low and was put on 800 mg a day.
Online I found that low vitamin D levels might cause me to feel achy. A recheck of my vitamin D level found it was still too low, 24 out of a possible 30, and my doctor increased my supplement to 1600 mg a day.
Skilled nursing facility (SNF) operators greeted last week with a bombshell launched by the Office of the Inspector General (OIG). On Tuesday, the OIG published a report ominously titled “Inappropriate Payments to Skilled Nursing Facilities Cost Medicare More Than a Billion Dollars in 2009.” Unfortunately, the contents of the report were perhaps even more foreboding than the title.
I have spent 15 of the past 16 Thanksgiving dinners in a nursing home. They are not the fond memories of helping my mother get things prepared and, after enjoying her delicious dinner, cleaning up. Nor are they like the Thanksgiving dinners in my own home, where I set the menu and even, at times, taught my caregivers to stuff a turkey and make proper gravy.
While attending the LeadingAge Conference in Denver last month, I had the opportunity to converse with a wonderful gentleman from New Hampshire. Conrad is a well-spoken 80-year-old who was representing his CCRC board at this conference. He was a first-timer to LeadingAge as he had only been on his board for about two years. As we sat in the coffee lounge in the Denver Convention Center, he expressed his amazement at all the mobile technology that surrounded us.
At a recent doctor's appointment I was shocked to see my reflection in a full-length mirror on the back of the examination room door. I quickly turned away because I did not want to look at myself. It had been a very long time since I had seen myself in full view.
I said, "I might melt like a vampire,” and the medical assistant laughed. I explained that I seldom see a mirror at the nursing home where I live and I am unaccustomed to seeing my reflection.
As entire areas of the country continue on with the arduous task of recovering from the impact of Hurricane Sandy and a subsequent storm that plowed into several regions of the United States, a common refrain has emerged that is consistent with most disasters: “It was worse than we ever expected.” Unless you are on the receiving end of a crisis or disaster, most Americans are insulated from the reality and the true gravity of the situation.
When I first went to a nursing home in 1996, I did not know how voting was handled. When I learned I would be voting in the group with a person from the board of elections assisting, I was uncomfortable. That is the only time I did not vote in a presidential election.
Many long-term care and assisted living facilities take for granted certain elements of their life safety systems. There is an expectation that these systems will automatically activate without fail during an emergency. The danger of complacency and not performing the necessary “due diligence” as it relates to the installation and maintenance of your facility’s generator(s) and emergency power systems can lead to catastrophic failures. Here are five tips to help ensure that your emergency power system performs to its maximum potential at all times:
A few months ago when I was in a nearby university hospital a male housekeeper cleaned my room with something different. The device looked like a push mop but it had a receptacle in the handle that held the cleaning water. He explained after each room was cleaned the changed the pad and the cleaning water were changed. I was impressed and liked the idea that my room was not cleaned with the same pad and water as the room next door.
I have lived in nursing homes for over 16 years and during that time I have tried to make a pleasing cup of tea. At the first facility where I lived, tea was served in gray cups and coffee in maroon ones. That was a great idea because the tea did not taste like coffee. However, after a few years the gray cups disappeared and coffee and tea were served in the same cups.
One of the challenges that we face in when conducting sales and marketing is making that initial contact with a prospective referral source that we have never met before. Cold calling, whether conducted over the phone or in-person is nerve racking and rarely successful. Unless you have a plan!
Most of us approach cold calls haphazardly, which dramatically increases our anxiety. When you know what you are going to say, you will be less nervous. When you know what you’re going to say works . . . need I say more?
