OBJECTIVES The main objective was to investigate the applicability and effectiveness of quality improvement initiatives in decreasing the rate of avoidable 30-day, skilled nursing facility (SNF)-to-hospital readmissions. PROBLEM The rate of rehospitalizations from SNF within 30 days of original discharge has increased within the last decade. SETTING The research team participants conducted ...

Responding to the deaths and suffering of older adults in long-term care facilities following Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, and Wilma, the John A. Hartford Foundation funded an initiative called Hurricane and Disaster Preparedness for Long-Term Care Facilities. Long-term care providers are now acknowledged as health care providers by most federal and state emergency response centers. This paper des...

After the introduction of public long-term care insurance in 2000, for-profit facilities were allowed to enter the at-home care market in Japan, where nonprofits are dominant. However, according to a popular hypothesis called the “contract failure,” nonprofit centers are preferred over for-profit counterparts due to an asymmetry of information. If this is the case, a change in competition polic...

BACKGROUND The national long-term care insurance was implemented in July 2008. Few studies have been conducted with representative national survey data since the long-term care insurance was introduced. Therefore, this study examines the extent to which equity in the use of long-term care has been achieved in Korea. METHODS The Aday-Andersen model was used as a conceptual model, based on the ...

BACKGROUND Demographic ageing is associated with an increasing number of dementia patients, who reportedly incur higher costs of care than individuals without dementia. Regarding Germany, evidence on these excess costs is scarce. Adopting a payer perspective, our study aimed to quantify the additional yearly expenditures per dementia patient for various health and long-term care services. Addit...

BACKGROUND The rate of use of nursing-care services has been increasing dramatically in recent years with the upgrading of the public long-term care insurance system in Japan. We addressed how the increased use of the nursing-care services might affect the information on the patients provided by their caregivers. METHODS A questionnaire survey of 531 family caregivers caring for dementia pati...

The AMMI Canada Guidelines document 'The use of antiviral drugs for influenza: A foundation document for practitioners', published in the Autumn 2013 issue of the Journal, outlines the recommendations for the use of antiviral drugs to treat influenza. This article, which represents the first of two updates to these guidelines published in the current issue of the Journal, aims to inform health ...

Person-centered care is a key concept guiding efforts to improve long-term care. Elements of person-centered care include personhood, knowing the person, maximizing choice and autonomy, comfort, nurturing relationships, and a supportive physical and organizational environment. The Oregon Health & Science University Hartford Center of Geriatric Nursing Excellence and the state agency that overse...

There has been dramatic change in the financing of long-term care in the last few years. Major private insurance carriers have introduced long-term care insurance policies to meet some of the custodial care needs of a variety of consumer groups, including old and young retirees as well as current employees. Newer policies are tying coverages more closely to a measure of disability that reflect ...

A novel influenza A partly of virus of swine origin (2009 H1N1) emerged this spring, resulting in an influenza pandemic. This pandemic is anticipated to continue into the next influenza season. Given that the 2009 H1N1 and seasonal influenza A appear to be somewhat different in the human populations affected and that two influenza vaccines will be recommended this fall, those who manage long-te...