The battle to quell the coronavirus pandemic has opened new divides among us — splitting those willing and not to get vaccinated against the disease, those who will adjust easily or not to life when the illness is a less dominant factor, and those who do not recover easily or quickly and struggle long after….
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U.S. nursing-home rating system ‘broken’ by gamed data and poor oversight
Federal regulators, by allowing owners and operators to self-report quality and safety data and failing to audit vital information with diligence, have “broken” the national nursing-home rating system — what was supposed to be an invaluable tool for consumers to make life-and-death decisions about where to place vulnerable loved ones needing round-the-clock care. Instead, the….
Continue ReadingNursing homes’ lethal health-staffing problem: Churn rates as high as 300%
Churn may be a wonderful word when discussing fresh milk, heavy cream, and butter. But it can be a nightmare term for the too-common, rapid, and lethal turnover that occurs in health staff at nursing homes and other long-term care facilities. Personnel turnover left the aged, injured, and ailing residents at care centers, with an….
Continue ReadingAs virus threat eases, alarms sound on hedge funds owning nursing homes
Just as good news expands about vaccines and declining coronavirus cases and deaths in the nation’s nursing homes and other long-term care facilities, grim information also is developing on how the facilities’ ownership, particularly by wealthy investors, can be lethal to residents. The positive effects of early efforts to get vulnerable long-term care residents and….
Continue ReadingBig freeze heats up need for emergency plans for individuals and institutions
The climate change deniers can holler their heads off. But for all too many people from coast-to-coast, Mother Nature’s fury is tragically clear — as is the importance of not only future thinking but also emergency planning, by individuals and institutions. This includes knowing common sense steps to safeguard one’s self and loved ones, in….
Continue ReadingNursing home coronavirus cases and deaths decline as vaccinations increase
The campaign to vaccinate millions of residents and staff in the nation’s thousands of nursing homes and other long-term care facilities against the coronavirus is gaining momentum and showing early, positive effects. At the same time, however, information is emerging on shabby treatment of the vulnerable, including their exposure to illness exported into their facilities….
Continue ReadingBattle against coronavirus may be boosting rise of drug-resistant superbugs
Patients long have dreaded the possibility that — when already seriously ill or hurt — they also would be hit with debilitating or deadly hospital- or health care-associated infections, aka HAIs. The most nightmarish of these cases involve bacteria or fungi difficult to subdue, even with powerful treatments. Now, with care institutions overwhelmed by coronavirus….
Continue ReadingCompanies duck and dodge on safety, liability, cost of products and services
Although corporate titans insist that Big Business can show more responsibility and not put profit ahead of all else, consumers are getting tough displays of how loath companies can be to owning up to dealing with harms their enterprises can cause or the rapacious pricing of their goods. The most recent sketchy signals on product….
Continue ReadingU.S. seeks to boost vaccine supply and use. Why wasn’t this done already?
As coronavirus vaccine supplies keep far exceeding demand, and as the new administration races to acquire and distribute more doses, as well as to kick start plodding vaccination campaigns across the country, it may be a challenge not to ask the people who oversaw battling the pandemic before: What the heck were you thinking? More on….
Continue ReadingNursing home staffing plunges as shots go up in long-term care facilities
The Biden Administration faces major challenges as it seeks to tame the coronavirus pandemic’s terrible toll on nursing homes and other long-term care facilities. The roll-out of vaccines for residents and staff plods along, while a big concern may be rising as facility staffing keeps eroding. The New York Times reported that Walgreens and CVS,….
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