Patient Safety and Quality


Book Description

"Nurses play a vital role in improving the safety and quality of patient car -- not only in the hospital or ambulatory treatment facility, but also of community-based care and the care performed by family members. Nurses need know what proven techniques and interventions they can use to enhance patient outcomes. To address this need, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), with additional funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, has prepared this comprehensive, 1,400-page, handbook for nurses on patient safety and quality -- Patient Safety and Quality: An Evidence-Based Handbook for Nurses. (AHRQ Publication No. 08-0043)." - online AHRQ blurb, http://www.ahrq.gov/qual/nurseshdbk/




Tough Decisions in Care of Elderly Loved Ones


Book Description

Being responsible for the needs and care of an elderly loved one can be a difficult role that many of us do willingly but it requires a lot - patience, time, energy, tenderness, and hard work. We often need to make decisions which are life altering for the other person and for ourselves and at times, are not pleasant or easy.How to have a conversation with your elderly loved one about changeDeal with deteriorating physical and mental health in loved ones What happens if they develop dementia? Making the decision on in-home care or a care facilityAdjusting to your role as caregiver while still caring for yourselfTough Decisions in the Care of Elderly Loved Ones is an invaluable, practical, and sympathetic guide to how to give your loved one the best possible care, while addressing the concerns that caretakers may have. After reading the book, you will feel as if someone is holding your hand while you make those tough decisions. In this book, Mahesh Moolani, MD objectively divides the tough situations into four categories and tackles each category in a straightforward way. He offers professional support and guidance on how to maintain a work/life/caring balance and better care for your elderly loved ones.Mahesh Moolani, MD is an Internist who is medical director of two nursing homes and cares for a huge geriatrics population. In his professional career, he has come across thousands of caregivers, who find it hard to provide optimum care to their loved ones, despite their best intentions and efforts.







Care After Covid: What the Pandemic Revealed Is Broken in Healthcare and How to Reinvent It


Book Description

A practical action plan for reinventing healthcare in a post-pandemic world—from a physician-entrepreneur who works with Fortune 500 companies. If the healthcare system were an emperor, Covid-19 tragically revealed that it had no clothes. Healthcare had to adapt, and quickly―sparking a dramatic acceleration of virtual care, drive-through testing, and home-based services. In the process, old rules were rewritten and, perhaps surprisingly, largely in a good way for patients. To succeed in the post-pandemic world, all of us―patients, caregivers, providers, employers, investors, technologists, and policymakers―need to understand the new healthcare landscape and change our strategies and behaviors accordingly. In Care After Covid, practicing physician and business leader Dr. Shantanu Nundy—Chief Medical Officer of Accolade, which provides technology-enabled health services to Fortune 500 companies as well as small businesses―lays out a comprehensive plan to transform healthcare along three dimensions: Distributed: healthcare will happen where health happens. It will shift from where doctors are to where patients are—at home, in the community, and increasingly on their phones. Digitally enabled: healthcare and the relationships that are central to care will be strengthened by data and technology. It will shift from being siloed to connected, from being episodic to continuous, from one-size-fits-all to more personalized. Decentralized: healthcare decisions and resources will be in the hands of those closest to care. The power to determine who gets care and how they get it will shift away from governments and insurance companies to communities, employers, doctors, and patients. Filled with firsthand insights and stories from the frontlines of healthcare—as well as innovative solutions that were proven effective before and during the pandemic—Care After Covid shows all stakeholders in the healthcare ecosystem exactly what needs to change and, more importantly, how to do it. The time to act is now. We can’t afford not to.




Families Caring for an Aging America


Book Description

Family caregiving affects millions of Americans every day, in all walks of life. At least 17.7 million individuals in the United States are caregivers of an older adult with a health or functional limitation. The nation's family caregivers provide the lion's share of long-term care for our older adult population. They are also central to older adults' access to and receipt of health care and community-based social services. Yet the need to recognize and support caregivers is among the least appreciated challenges facing the aging U.S. population. Families Caring for an Aging America examines the prevalence and nature of family caregiving of older adults and the available evidence on the effectiveness of programs, supports, and other interventions designed to support family caregivers. This report also assesses and recommends policies to address the needs of family caregivers and to minimize the barriers that they encounter in trying to meet the needs of older adults.







Caring for a Person with Alzheimer's Disease: Your Easy -to-Use- Guide from the National Institute on Aging (Revised January 2019)


Book Description

The guide tells you how to: Understand how AD changes a person Learn how to cope with these changes Help family and friends understand AD Plan for the future Make your home safe for the person with AD Manage everyday activities like eating, bathing, dressing, and grooming Take care of yourself Get help with caregiving Find out about helpful resources, such as websites, support groups, government agencies, and adult day care programs Choose a full-time care facility for the person with AD if needed Learn about common behavior and medical problems of people with AD and some medicines that may help Cope with late-stage AD




How to Protect Your Family's Assets from Devastating Nursing Home Costs


Book Description

Written by an elder law attorney with over 23 years experience, this book will help anyone with a family member faced with a long-term stay in a nursing home who wishes to preserve at least some of their assets by qualifying for the Medicaid program. You dont have to be broke to qualify! For the first time ever, the inside secrets of high-priced estate planning and elder law attorneys are revealed. Includes a summary of all income and asset rules for both married and single individuals, together with numerous examples and several case studies, which take the reader through the same thought processes that an experienced elder law attorney would go through when analyzing a real-life clients situation. The book includes tips on: how to title your home so you do not lose it to the state; how to make transfers to family members that wont disqualify you from Medicaid; how annuities make assets disappear; smart tricks for spending down your assets; what to change in your will to save thousands of dollars if your spouse ever needs nursing home care; avoiding the states reimbursement claim following the nursing home residents death; and much more. Completely up-to-date, the book includes the massive changes made by the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 as well as the December 2006 Tax Relief and Health Care Act amendments.




Social Isolation and Loneliness in Older Adults


Book Description

Social isolation and loneliness are serious yet underappreciated public health risks that affect a significant portion of the older adult population. Approximately one-quarter of community-dwelling Americans aged 65 and older are considered to be socially isolated, and a significant proportion of adults in the United States report feeling lonely. People who are 50 years of age or older are more likely to experience many of the risk factors that can cause or exacerbate social isolation or loneliness, such as living alone, the loss of family or friends, chronic illness, and sensory impairments. Over a life course, social isolation and loneliness may be episodic or chronic, depending upon an individual's circumstances and perceptions. A substantial body of evidence demonstrates that social isolation presents a major risk for premature mortality, comparable to other risk factors such as high blood pressure, smoking, or obesity. As older adults are particularly high-volume and high-frequency users of the health care system, there is an opportunity for health care professionals to identify, prevent, and mitigate the adverse health impacts of social isolation and loneliness in older adults. Social Isolation and Loneliness in Older Adults summarizes the evidence base and explores how social isolation and loneliness affect health and quality of life in adults aged 50 and older, particularly among low income, underserved, and vulnerable populations. This report makes recommendations specifically for clinical settings of health care to identify those who suffer the resultant negative health impacts of social isolation and loneliness and target interventions to improve their social conditions. Social Isolation and Loneliness in Older Adults considers clinical tools and methodologies, better education and training for the health care workforce, and dissemination and implementation that will be important for translating research into practice, especially as the evidence base for effective interventions continues to flourish.