Current Issue: Volume 20 - Issue 1 - January 2012
Feature » Medicare Update
To the Point: Meeting Vaccination Quality Measures for Older Adults
Although today’s long-term care (LTC) providers have an increasing number of vaccines at their disposal, it is not always easy to provide them to residents. As a result, many patients are not reaping the critical clinical benefits of vaccines and many providers are unable to obtain the associated direct and indirect financial incentives tied to vaccine use. In this article, the author discusses how LTC providers can achieve target health and financial outcomes, with an explanation of current clinical guidelines for adult immunization as well as Medicare coverage rules so that the “right” patients are identified and have access to the appropriate vaccines.
Feature » Perspectives
Palliative Care Practice for Advanced Dementia: Regulatory Friend or Foe?
State and federal agencies regulate long-term care (LTC) organizations to ensure residents with diverse illnesses and varying levels of independence and function receive quality care. No state or federal standards, however, explicitly assure the comfort of individuals in the advanced stage of dementia, the most common terminal illness in today’s nursing homes. Through training, consultation, and evaluation, research teams from Arizona and Illinois succeeded in integrating a program of palliative care that emphasized comfort-focused strategies into advanced dementia care without compromising regulatory compliance. This article briefly describes the findings of these teams, both of which concluded that personalized comfort care improves the quality of life for advanced dementia residents while coexisting with, and even supporting, the intent of LTC regulations.
Feature » Review
Dementia and Palliative Care
Although patients with dementia are considered to have a terminal illness, they are often subjected to or continued on therapies that can lead to unnecessary suffering. Palliative care, which strives to provide patients with a peaceful and dignified final phase of life, is an important treatment approach for these patients. This article discusses several palliative care practices that can be incorporated into the care of individuals with dementia, including strategies for minimizing the medical burden on patients (eg, reducing polypharmacy), assessing for and managing pain, and managing psychiatric symptoms or syndromes (eg, delirium, depression, sleep disturbances).
- « Previous
- Page 1 of 4
- Next »
