In This Issue:

Growing Old Ain’t for Wimps - by Ken Burgess

As the saying goes, growing old ain’t for wimps, and caring for aging Americans also ain’t for wimps these days, with the passage of health reform. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) passed earlier this year includes several nettlesome provisions for providers caring for elderly patients or residents, including....

...FutureCare of North Carolina – A New Voice for Change in Long-Term Care - By Gordon DeFriese, PhD

In 2007, the North Carolina Health Care Facilities Association, the trade association for skilled nursing care facilities in the state, saw the need for a new research and education initiative that would focus on efforts to address the many issues affecting the quality and performance of the nursing home industry, with an emphasis on innovative approaches to long-standing issues in both medical/nursing care as well as in residential quality of life. The decision to form a new nonprofit 501(c)(3) public corporation, with its own independent board of trustees, would make it possible to attract to North Carolina support from a variety of private philanthropies and governmental agencies so that these efforts could focus on all types of facilities providing skilled nursing care...

...Toss or Keep: Document Retention in a Nursing Facility - By Ken Burgess and Kristi Huff

Deciding how long to hold on to specific records in your facility can be a challenging task, especially when so many different types of records cross your desk every day. If you’re a pack rat like us, it’s tempting to hold on to everything indefinitely – an option we know can be space and cost-prohibitive, especially within the nursing home environment. Our reluctance to dispose of records is also driven by several critical questions, such as...