“It strikes me as grossly unfair for older people to have to spend whatever time they have left fretting about going into a nursing home,” writes Barbara Quirk in the article “Wis. nursing homes take LANE to quality”.

Public images of nursing homes are frequently negative. The media typically highlight sensational stories about neglect. Rarely do they cover all of the positive work of providers. Going above and beyond providing quality care and services, many providers are implementing culture change and social accountability initiatives.

Ms. Quirk notes the lack of positive coverage will hopefully be changing. Quality improvement campaigns such as Advancing Excellence in America’s Nursing Homes campaign, help providers monitor their improvement and share their progress with the public.

How does your community share the good work that it does? How do you assure consumers that the terrible stories they see do not represent your community or for that matter, the majority of communities?

Four bowling teams from Erickson Communities across the nation battle it out to be Erickson Sports’ first Wii Bowling Tournament Champions.

The teams, all full service retirement communities, are:
The Sedgebrook Alley Cats in Naperville, Illinois
The Texas Highlanders at Highland Springs in Dallas
The Mighty Oaks of Oak Crest in Baltimore, Maryland
The Greenspring Strikers in Springfield, Virginia

Nintendo Wii is a great way to help residents get exercise and build camaraderie. Simply put…it’s a lot of fun.

AAHSA developed a handy guide for consumers searching for a community to fit their needs. The Consumers’ Guide to Quality Aging Services (PDF) features a series of questions designed to help consumers learn how different providers are managed, which values drive their work, and, most importantly, how they meet an individual’s needs and preferences.

The questions encompass the 10 Elements of Quality. Some examples are:

• How do you include family members in making decisions about the care and services for their loved ones?
• Does your organization have a written code of ethics?
• What training opportunities do you offer employees?

The Guide can also be used by providers. One simple way to use it is to share it with consumers and respond openly to their questions so they can make an informed decision.

In a recent issue of futureAge, Elaine Kaiser, director of marketing and admissions at Dunwoody Village in Newtown Square, Pa, discussed how the Guide fits into their work. “A lot of what’s in the guide are simply good business practices that quality organizations are already doing,” she said. “However, consumers aren’t necessarily aware these efforts are taking place, and it’s important for them to know the right questions to ask.”

Whether you are a consumer searching for the right community or a provider looking for a new way to share your work with consumers, the Consumers’ Guide to Quality Aging Services (PDF) can be a great resource for you.

Thanks to advances in medicine and scientific discoveries, millions of Americans with AIDS are living longer than ever before.

That leaves just one question: How can  providers help these individuals face their unique health challenges as they age?

An article considering this very question made the front page of yesterday’s New York Times.  The article investigates how housing and health care providers across New York City are tackling these challenges while keeping in mind the needs and preferences of the people they serve. These include people like Jeff, a 56-year old who struggles with AIDS-induced osteoporsis and Parkinson’s Disease simultaneously. Or another who, in addition to several AIDS-related hospitalization, has had several heart attacks and triple-bypass surgery.

The article also features insights from medical experts at the Rivington House. This AAHSA member is one of the country’s only nursing homes exclusively for AIDS patients. There, support groups and drug trials bring hope that individuals with AIDS can age with more dignity and independence, but the stressors of today make it difficult to see the promise tomorrow may hold.

Questions and concerns  nursing home quality throughout Tennessee is making the news. But it isn’t all one sided.

Recently, The Tennessean published an editorial that AAHSA CEO Larry Minnix and the  Tennessee Association of Homes and Services for the Aging’s Exeuctive Director, Carrie Ermshar, wrote together about transforming the fears about nursing homes into hope. I think it’s a great example of why providers must address today’s crises and challenges head on  to ensure a better  for tomorrow.  Here’s what they had to say:

We must move from fear to hope on elderly care

By LARRY MINNIX
and CARRIE ERMSHAR

Recent events at McKendree Village have fueled double-edged fear about nursing homes. The public fears bad care. Nursing homes fear unfair inspections. Fear is a reckless driver.

Experts agree that nursing care needs transformation. “Quality” is inadequately defined and, too often, the caregivers who deliver it are inadequately supported. The inspection process is geared toward rigid compliance with myriad regulations, and enforcement is inconsistent. Reimbursement payment to providers is woefully low — roughly $6 an hour in Tennessee. (Try hiring a babysitter or finding a good hotel for that.) Policy changes are too often driven by ignorance, Band-Aid planning, self-interest and political expediency. The needs of residents and caregivers are often lost.

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So, how do we move from fear to hope?

Providers need to manage better. While all nursing homes face challenges, many achieve strong staff retention, good inspections and high consumer satisfaction.

We must embrace continuous quality improvement as a management practice. Providers must also acknowledge that staffing is the best proxy for quality and concentrate on human resource retention and development.

Policy-makers should use the National Commission for Quality Long-Term Care’s recent report as an honest appraisal and visionary guide to a new era of quality we can trust. Year-to-year planning on how to cut Medicaid or create more regulation does not work. Gov. Phil Bredesen served on the commission, which was led by Bob Kerrey and Newt Gingrich.

The commission believes long-term care should be based on consumer needs and choice; support of family caregivers; respect, livable compensation and contemporary training for staff; use of technology to maximize the independence of older consumers; make provision of care more efficient; and a financing system that ensures access to long-term care.

McKendree Village has a history of community respect, a status that they will earn again. But because of McKendree’s strong track record and the difficulties even they experienced, we must wonder if the whole system of nursing home care and regulation needs attention.

There should be two kinds of nursing homes: the excellent and the non-existent. It is time to transform fear into hope. All of us have a role to play in getting there.