Caregiving « Silver Buzz Cafe

It’s Time For Your Annual Flu Shot

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has recommended that everyone over the age of 6 months have a flu shot for the 2010/2011 season. [...]

Church Run Hospitals Provide Best Care

A Thomson Reuters study, built on data from the Reuters Top 100 Hospitals report, found that church run hospitals are more likely to provide better care and are run more efficiently than their secular counterparts. [...]

Things That Every Caregiver Needs To Know

With more than 65 million people in the United States serving as informal caregivers, generally for family members, it’s important that they learn how to find their way through the entangled web of information connected to the cared person’s case. [...]

United States Ranks Ninth In End Of Life Care Index

Sarah Palin has repeatedly lied about the government’s intent to set up “death panels“, regurgitating her claims again last week. She also cited the United Kingdom (UK) as a place where shadowy bureaucrats get to decide whether a sick person lives or dies. She’ll be shocked by the findings of an international study of end of life care. [...]

$8M Grant Will Fund Senior Care Telemedicine Study

An $8m rural health initiative grant from the Leona and Harry B. Helmsley Trust in New York will fund a three year test of telemedicine and sensor technology to help frail seniors stay healthier and delay institutional care. It will involve about 1,600 clients in 40 rural cities. [...]

H.R. 3043 - The Forgotten Health Care Bill

Adult day centers play an important role in the lives of seniors who live alone at home. They generally provide social contact, basic health monitoring, inexpensive meals and activities. Private donations to them have declined as a result of the bad economy and Medicaid and other programs don’t have the funds to keep them running at their current level. One of the casualties of the protected health care and insurance reform battle was a little known bill called “The Medicare Adult Day Services Act of 2009, H.R. 3043“. [...]

Learn How To Be a Better Patient

The Joint Commission is a non-profit organization that was formed in 1910 to “evaluate health care organizations and inspire them to excel in providing safe and effective care of the highest quality and value.” They have produced an online quiz that is aimed at improving patients’ knowledge of health safety issues. [...]

British Celebrity Chef Working On Improving Hospital Food

If you’re a typical American you probably think that British food stops at fish and chips and pies with unmentionable ingredients in them. That was pretty much true in the years during and after WWII, but Britain now has some of the best restaurants in the World, with many of them earning the coveted Michelin three stars. Now, one of the United Kingdom’s top restauranteurs has teamed up with scientists to tackle the problem of making hospital food more attractive to elderly patients. [...]

Everyone’s Guide to Medical Equipment – Part 19 – Dialysis Equipment

In the latest in this series on medical equipment, we look at the dialysis machine. [...]

The New Health Care Law and Home-Based Care

The number of Americans over 65 will increase dramatically in the next decade, as around 75 million Baby Boomers reach the retirement age. The new health care reform bills are designed to help Medicaid and Medicare take the strain. There are important new provisions for people who need care at home and for helping seniors age in place. [...]

Senate Long Term Care Hearing - A Second Opinion

Yesterday we wrote about testimony from the American Association of Homes and Services for the Aging (AAHSA) to the U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging that identifies a Catch-22 situation that nurses frequently find themselves in. Today, we look at a different view of the same situation, whose proponents argue that the real problem is off-label use of antipsychotic drugs. [...]

Long Term Care Nurses Caught In Catch-22 Situation

About forty percent of physicians working in long-term care serve multiple facilities, do not maintain an office-based practice and consult with nurses via telephone if a resident’s needs change quickly. So, nurses in long-term care facilities ( LTCFs) play a vital role in communicating with physicians about residents under their care. Standard practice is for nurses to record the physician’s verbal orders, including medication requirements, then ensure that they are carried out. However, a new Catch-22 has emerged as a result of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s (DEA’s) outdated and cumbersome regulations. [...]

Joint Position Paper Looks At Senior's Nutrition Issues

Nearly 13 percent of the U.S. population is age 65 and older, is living longer and is growing in number. The fastest growing segment is those aged 85 years and older. Projections for 2030 estimate an increase to 72 million people aged 65 and older, or 20 percent of the population. With this in mind, three organizations that specialize in nutrition and diet issues have produced a joint position paper that looks at the issues and makes recommendations for government agencies, family members and caregivers to follow. [...]

Alphadaughters May Help Resolve the Looming Senior Care Problem

Politicians in most developed countries are wrestling with the problems of escalating health care costs, exacerbated by a rapidly aging population as the baby boomers retire and age. It is estimated that there are over 30 million people in the US who care for elderly parents and this number is projected to grow rapidly during the next two decades. A report published in the United Kingdom suggests that more of the government’s focus should be on family carers, rather than the elderly themselves. [...]

1 in 5 Nursing Homes Get Poor Ratings From Medicare

Medicare started releasing star ratings for the nation’s nursing homes in late 2008. They derive the ratings from complaint investigations, standard inspections and other data. There are around 15,700 nursing homes in the United States, caring for over 1.5 million people. Just over 5% of over 65s live in nursing homes and twice as many others are admitted for short periods in a given year. The Medicare rating system awards nursing homes one to five stars. The latest report rates one in five facilities in the one or two star (i.e. “poor”) category. [...]

A New Tool for Maintaining a Family Health History

The Department of Health & Human Services has just released an updated and improved version of the U.S. Surgeon General’s Internet-based family health history tool. It makes it easier for people to assemble and share family health history information. The data can also be used to help caregivers provide better care. The tool is significantly different from the approach adopted by some other organizations, such as Google Health. [...]

When and How To Find a Patient Advocate

Unfortunately, almost everyone has had some kind of bad experience when dealing with medical facilities, be it long waits in emergency rooms or extortionate charges for services, supplies or medications. Dealing with health care insurers and providers, especially in the case of life threatening or chronic conditions, can be daunting, even for a well-educated person with time on their hands. In this article we look at the various kinds of patient advocacy groups and individuals. [...]

Continuing Care Retirement Communities Face New Challenges

Bankruptcy rates for Continuing Care Retiring Communities (CCRCs) have historically been around 0.3% per year, which is much lower than the rate for regular nursing homes, where as many as 15% are operating under bankruptcy rules in some states. However, the slump in the housing market has had a knock-on effect and it is now impacting CCRCs. [...]

Interesting News Items

Today’s news roundup articles cover: some observations on common nutrients; a traditional herbal tea that seems to work as well as Aspirin as a pain reliever; a study that found a relationship between the occurrence of multiple chronic pains and the incidence of falls; a 1930′s drug used for treating sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) that has unique cancer halting side effects; and a very interesting study of the effect of the relationship between Alzheimer’s disease patients and caregivers on the progression of the disease. [...]

New Taste Receptor for Glutamate Discovered

Back in July we wrote a series of articles about the effect of aging on our senses, including taste. In a study¹ published in the latest issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, researchers describe the first receptor on the tongue found to be exclusively for detecting glutamate. If asked, most people can immediately list four common tastes – sweet, sour, salty and bitter. However, Asians have long recognized another taste called umami (savory). It is used to describe the taste and sensation of glutamate, an amino acid found in protein foods and the flavor enhancer monosodium glutamate (MSG). Glutamate is a non-essential amino acid used commercially as monosodium glutamate (MSG), because it is less toxic than salt, stable and easy to dissolve. [...]

The Nursing Shortage

The nursing shortage eased slightly during the recession, but the underlying problems are still there and the situation is likely to get worse.The healthcare sector is continuing to grow, with hospitals, long-term care facilities, and other ambulatory care settings adding 27,000 new jobs in February 2009, a month when 681,000 jobs were eliminated nationwide. A large proportion of these positions would have been filled by nurses. Looking forward, the situation looks worrying. Over the next two decades the average age of Registered Nurses (RNs) will increase and many will retire. Government analyst estimate that more than one million new and replacement nurses will be needed by 2016. They expect the U.S. nursing shortage to grow to 260,000 registered nurses by 2025, making it twice as large as any nursing shortage in this country since the mid-1960s. [...]

Transportation for Seniors

One of the most daunting challenges as we age comes when we have to give up driving, or we no longer have a family member or friend who can help transport us around. One of the best resources we’ve found while researching this topic is the National Center on Senior Transportation, run by the Easter Seals organization. A number of organizations, such as Mercy Medical Airlift, specialize in finding air transportation for needy patients. We’ve provided links to these and other transportation resources on the Useful Sites page. [...]

2010 Social Security Payments Under Fire

Barbara Kennelly, a former Democratic congresswoman from Connecticut who now heads the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare (NCPSSM), is sounding the alarm on a potential drop on income from Social Security payments next year. That’s because the trustees who oversee Social Security are projecting that there won’t be a cost of living adjustment (COLA) for the next two years. The NCCPSSM would like to see a one percent increase in monthly payments, or a one-time payment of $150. Not everybody agrees with the NCPSSM. Andrew G. Biggs, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, a Washington think tank says – “Seniors may perceive that they are being hurt because there is no COLA, but they are in fact not getting hurt.” [...]

Socialized Healthcare and Americans

Some critics of the proposed Healthcare Insurance Reform Bill are against socialism at any cost. They argue that they don’t want the government involved in the healthcare system. They tend to use the word “socialism” as if it were synonymous with “communism”, which it is not. Almost all governments in Europe are socialist, even when they have conservatives in office. Despite the above argument, the fact is that people who are against any form of socialized healthcare are ignoring one very important fact – “The federal government will account for 35 percent of the expected $2.5 trillion in health spending this year, and that does not include subsidies built into the tax code.” – New York Times. So, because the critics of the proposed Bill have no facts to support their claims that socialized healthcare is a bad thing, but socialized medicine is definitely a central theme of the proposed Bill, we award this line of argument a single, extremely smelly Silver Buzz Cafe Red Herring [...]

Fighting Bacteria With Silver

A study published in the British Journal of Community Nursing showed that levels of potentially deadly bacteria can be dramatically reduced using products treated with silver antimicrobial agents. If the treatment remains effective across long periods this could make a substantial contribution to helping cut down bacterial cross-contamination in homes, nursing homes and other caregiving establishments. [...]

In Pursuit of Peace - The Hospice Option

Despite advances in modern medicine and science, people still contract illnesses with no known cure. If it’s possible to remain at home then that is often the best choice as the patient can be close to family and friends and doesn’t have to cope with unfamiliar surroundings. Hospices focus on caring, not curing. The organization strives to provide the highest quality of life for whatever time remains. [...]

President Obama signed the second part (reconciliation) of the health care reform bill on March 30, 2010. That's great, but the provisions that will cover the uninsured haven't clicked in yet.

Our elected officials started work on the proposed health insurance reform bill on July 30, 2009. Harvard researchers estimate that 122 Americans die every day as a result of not having health insurance.

So, the estimated number of uninsured Americans who have died while the politicians in the Senate and Congress played politics and delayed new benefits for the sake of the health care insurers is

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“Green” Blogging

Things That Every Caregiver Needs To Know

Everyone’s Guide to Medical Equipment – Part 19 – Dialysis Equipment

When and How To Find a Patient Advocate

Continuing Care Retirement Communities Face New Challenges

New Taste Receptor for Glutamate Discovered

The Nursing Shortage

Transportation for Seniors

2010 Social Security Payments Under Fire

Socialized Healthcare and Americans

In Pursuit of Peace - The Hospice Option

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