Skilled nursing facilities have witnessed consistent growth in the utilization of rehabilitation services in past decades. As a guest columnist for McKnight’s Long-Term Care News, Mary Fran Thaler, PT, and Vice President of Administration for Hebrew Home at Riverdale, says this expansion in rehab services is in part due to demand by baby boomers for short-term rehabilitation.

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Researchers from Harvard Medical School and Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice examined 251 nursing homes that adopted culture change between 2004 and 2009. Read Full Post

While a similar bill has already been introduced in the House, on Wednesday Senators Robert Menendez, D-N.J. and Deb Fischer, R-Neb. put forth The Two-Midnight Rule Coordination and Improvement Act of 2014 to address the hospital observation stay vs. inpatient issue and revise CMS's impending "two-midnight rule," reports McKnight's Long-Term Care News. Read Full Post

Patient Safety Awareness Week is a time to reflect on our rehab teams’ concerted efforts to maximize patient safety at each stage of care. We all go to great lengths to keep our patients safe within the walls of our rehab departments. We also take every measure to ensure our patients’ safety when it is time to abandon the gait belt or standing and transfer aids and return home.
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A new analysis proves that the benefits of knee and hip rehab continue for months after a stay in an inpatient rehabilitation facility, reports Reuters. Read Full Post

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services announced on Tuesday that the expansion of coverage to chronic heart failure patients is official.

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Lack of sleep may increase the risk for Alzheimer’s disease, according to a recent study featured on Medical News Today. Research from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Health suggests that lack of sleep or poor sleep quality may be linked to an increased buildup of beta-amyloid plaques — a major indicator of Alzheimer’s — in the brains of older adults.

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Many of us focus on losing weight as the New Year begins, but it can be hard to know the best way to reach our goals. Everywhere we turn there is a new, “guaranteed” weight loss program or exercise fad vying for our attention and our dollars. Although there is a lot of solid research available to assist us in identifying a good program, that information is often in the shadows of the highly marketed money-making programs. We typically focus on what looks to be a quick and easy fix.

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We don’t want to dampen your holiday spirit, but we at Kindred do want you to be safe this holiday season. The holidays are notorious for coronary trouble, and it is critical to be vigilant about heart health and self-care in December.

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Medicare recently proposed expanding coverage of cardiac rehabilitation services for cardiac patients, reports MedPage Today . Prior to the proposal, announced online last week, CMS claimed there was insufficient evidence to support cardiac rehab to patients with chronic heart failure (CHF). Me

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