As more people live longer, the need for quality long-term care for the elderly will increase dramatically. This volume examines the current system of nursing home regulations, and proposes an overhaul to better provide for those confined to such facilities. It determines the need for regulations, and concludes that the present regulatory system is inadequate, stating that what is needed is not more regulation, but better regulation. This long-anticipated study provides a wealth of useful background information, in-depth study, and discussion for nursing home administrators, students, and teachers in the health care field; professionals involved in caring for the elderly; and geriatric specialists.

Effective Management of Long-Term Care Facilities, Fourth Edition examines the complex operations of the long-term care facility and offers critical skills to current and future long-term care administrators for delivering quality, cost-effective services. An excellent resource for both new and seasoned long-term care managers, this logically organized text begins with an understanding of what long-term care is and why it's an integral part of the health care delivery system. It moves on to explore the legal and regulatory parameters and payment constraints within which long-term care facilities must be managed; each of the main functional departments that administrators must understand and oversee; and, effective governance and leadership and management of human resources, marketing and quality—much of which is unique to nursing home administration. The final section of the book offers case studies to simulate situations that the administrator is likely to encounter in practice.

The responsibility of providing mental health evaluations and treatment to nursing home patients is increasingly falling on the shoulders of social services and nursing staff. Psychosocial Intervention in Long-Term Care provides the advanced techniques you, as a caregiver, need for assessing and intervening with psychosocial and behavioral problems in LTC. Targeted to students and staff who are familiar with the basic needs and problems of LTC residents, this book also describes effective ways of documenting assessments and interventions to help you integrate results into the medical record and prepare for state surveys. Psychosocial Intervention in Long-Term Care presents you with information about common mental disorders in LTC, basic counseling techniques, and the three major types of psychiatric medication. You’ll also read about legal issues in the psychosocial arena and learn how to avoid burnout while working in LTC. Best of all, this book shows you how to: use the Geriatric Depression Scale and the Mini Mental Status Exam to screen for depression and dementia design thorough behavioral assessments through use of a tracking grid use results of assessments to set up effective behavioral interventions intervene with specific psychosocial problems, such as aggression document the results of assessments develop effective Resident Assessment Inventories prepare for state surveys and develop plans of correction in response to surveysWhether you’re a graduate student or new practitioner in social work, nursing, or health care administration, you’ll appreciate this book’s practical, hands-on approach to problem solving and its focus on the biopsychosocial model. Only through a thorough assessment of residents’physical, psychological, and social needs can we design effective intervention and provide the care they deserve.

More Mock Tracers, a follow-up to the best-selling Mock Tracer Workbook, presents a new collection of practical, easy-to-understand instructions and exercises to help health care professionals conduct an effective tracer in any health care setting. Health care organizations can use tracers the way surveyors do -- to evaluate an individual's care or a specific care process as part of a system -- to examine their own systems and processes, identify unwanted trends, and implement changes as part of an ongoing improvement process.

Tracer methodology is the cornerstone of The Joint Commission on-site accreditation survey process. So what's the best way for health care professionals to learn about tracers? Practice. Even More Mock Tracers will help health care organizations use mock (practice) tracers to identify unrecognized compliance and patient safety issues and implement changes as part of an ongoing improvement process--before a survey takes place. This easy-to-follow practical tool offers a wealth of sample tracers, called scenarios. These address issues in all domestic and international program settings: hospital and critical access hospital, ambulatory care and office-based surgery, behavioral health care, home care, and long term care, and laboratory. An additional section contains scenarios focusing on the environment of care. Not only will the workbook help familiarize staff with all aspects of tracers, it will also serve as a resource and training tool for conducting mock tracers in any health care organization. Special Features: A 10-step tutorial on how to conduct mock tracers Sample tracer questions keyed to the tracer scenarios Worksheet template to help users develop their own mock tracers Examples of completed mock tracer worksheets