Osborn Health & Rehabilitation in Scottsdale, Arizona, is giving out shirts and goodies to those who get vaccinated.

Here at Mountain View, we’ve experienced close to 100% facility staff vaccinations, and attribute our success to a couple of key reasons: the scars left on our minds and hearts as we reflect back over the past 13 months that we never want to repeat again, and communication, communication, communication. Looking back, we never thought the virus would hit so close to home. We heard about it in the news from China, but that’s a world away. We were taken by surprise when the first case of COVID-19 in the United States happened here in our backyard in January 2020. . Shortly after, the first outbreak also happened in our area; it was just across the county line. Suddenly we were thrust into the epicenter of the virus, and it seemed the whole world was watching how we managed. 

We quickly saw the virus spread in a nearby facility, then in another facility, and then in our community, like an uncontrollable wildfire. In June of that year, it finally came on our doorstep. We knew it was just a matter of time. I think the only positive thing about this pandemic is that it brought our team together even closer. We’ve seen the impact that the virus has had on our patients — their health, their emotions, their psyche and not just them, the family members, too, and the staff. This was the main reason why our staff was so determined to do something about this pandemic by way of getting vaccinated. Read On...

Village Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center in McAllen, Texas, is pushing for 100% of their staff to be vaccinated against the virus. Recently, ED Alexandra Yzaguirre was featured in an article on KRGV.com. "We're fully vaccinated — the ones that were able to get it. We're about 90% vaccinated for the staff; we had our second dose on Friday." Read the full story here

“KO Let’s Go, Let’s Go KO!” This is the rally cry at Keller Oaks in Keller, Texas, and it is a commonly heard anthem when you visit the facility. In a year that has been difficult at best in healthcare, the culture has done nothing but improve at Keller Oaks. When you look deeper to see what is in the air at Keller Oaks, it goes far beyond COVID.

Starting with onboarding, Keller embraces culture by conducting group interviews and hiring only those people who the team agrees can be grown into great leaders. They agree on all hires and then make sure that the process does not stop there. According to Kristin, “Love is in the details.” She ensures that the new employee is greeted with everything that they need to be successful. She has their log-ins ready, an itinerary for their first day, and a team member assigned to them as a mentor. Kristin provides them with a bit of “swag” and has a ready-made reference form entitled “KO NEED TO KNOW” that includes everything from door codes to restroom locations to documentation tips and PCC locations of interest. Read On...

Her family is also not new to the therapy world. Her mom, Jasmine, is also an Occupational Therapist Assistant working with our company. Together with her Mom's guidance and Jessica’s love of therapy, Jessica eventually obtained her degree as a Certified Occupational Therapist Assistant from Stanbridge University in 2018. She worked as a part time employee to explore her options and eventually was hired full time at St. Elizabeth Healthcare and Rehabilitation in Fullerton, CA. Read On...

When the Momentum market gave me an opportunity to manage two great buildings, Southland Care Center and Downey Post-Acute, there was one person who stepped behind me and whispered, “This opportunity is best for our patients and therapists.” She did not see the struggle that I was heading into, but the opportunity of spreading our core values. I always feel proud, with teary eyes, every time I brag about this person to my colleagues when they ask about our best practices. My answer is that our secret sauce is Jihan Antipolo. Read On...

There are numerous benefits to hiring a CFY. The new grad is likely to be motivated to learn, eager to build a caseload and willing to accept guidance. A CFY is not a student. If you hire a new grad SLP, they are a regular employee. The only difference is they require some supervision from another SLP. During the COVID-19 pandemic, ASHA is allowing tele-supervision. The mentor needs to be licensed in the state where the CFY will be working. See the changes for 2020 here: 2020 requirements ASHA SLP Crosswalk. Read On...

There are many times that we run across clinicians that have such a passion for integrating new and innovative clinical ideas. Some move with hesitancy, unsure if their idea will really gain traction. We say to those that are hesitant, please Exercise your Passion for Learning! Malathy Venkatesh, PhD, CCC-SLP, originally joined our Mason Creek facility in Katy, Texas, in 2019. She recently relocated to our Tempe post-acute facility located in Arizona in late 2020. From the very first time I met Malathy, our conversations revolved around the underutilization of speech therapy services with a goal on how to increase awareness around clinical programming. Malathy has spent the last six months introducing LTC patients to the Montessori Method. Below you will find details about the Montessori approach to dementia from an SLP perspective, along with some ideas on how SLPs can use this approach in the LTC setting with examples of materials and goals.  Read On...

In the fall of 2020, two of North Mountain Medical Center's therapists, Tyler Lieberman, COTA/L, and Calli Carlson, OTR/L DOR, spent 145 hours over the course of three weekends to become certified lymphedema therapists. Calli received a brief introduction to lymphedema management in her occupational therapy graduate program but knew there was still a great deal to learn in order to provide the best possible care to residents. Tyler also expressed interest in becoming certified, particularly after observing many residents with edema/lymphedema and the subsequent joint stiffness and skin changes that resulted. North Mountain's CEO, Jason Postl, and Director of Nursing, Jacque Green, were extremely supportive in providing the means for training and were equally as committed to providing the highest quality, holistic care for residents.

Lymphedema itself is historically ill-understood in clinical practice despite affecting 90 to 250 million people worldwide. Lymph node removals, trauma, surgeries, medications, genetics and obesity are just a few of the contributing factors to disruption of the lymphatic system, which can result in protein-rich fluid in the interstitium and cause a cascade of adverse reactions.   Read On...

Temple View Transitional Care Center in Rexburg, Idaho, Therapy led by Susie Swetter, DPT, DOR, joined the organization in the fall of 2019 during the transition from PPS to PDPM. One area in particular they have been focused on is improving their Self-Care GG scores. The challenge to improve was brought to the team, and their new OT, Neil Marion, stepped up to own it. 

The team met to review their GG scores and their coding process. Neil looked at the metrics and said, “I want Temple View to lead the market in the self-care increase score.” At the time, Temple View was behind several other buildings in the Market in self-care. However, within several weeks of continued improvement in self-care scores, Temple View grabbed the top spot in percentage improvement in self-care scores for the ID/NV market. When asked how Neil did it, his response to getting the top spot was amazing: Read On...

Causes of poor oral hygiene may be related to genetic, developmental and environmental factors. Most of our patients receive medications that may have side effects. For example, Xerostomia (i.e., extremely dry mouth) is a common problem that contributes to poor oral hygiene; causes include drugs, smoking, radiation therapy, diabetes Mellitus, etc. (Kapoor et al., 2014). Our role is to assist with and provide instructions and education regarding the different mouth care approaches for our patients Read On...

COVID-19 is a respiratory viral disease with multi-organ involvement resulting in potentially temporary and episodic health challenges such as impaired lung function, physical deconditioning, cognitive impairments, impaired swallow and communication, and mental health disorders. The effect of the virus on the respiratory system appears to range from a simple respiratory tract infection to acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) with multi-organ failure. People with COVID-19 may also develop coagulopathy that can lead to venous thromboembolism (VTE) and microvascular thrombosis throughout the body, increasing the risk of negative mental health outcomes. (https://academic.oup.com/ptj/article/100/12/2127/5903663)

Older adults respond to their own stress and that experienced by staff, which can increase the risk of behavioral problems. Isolation and lack of stimulation may also lead to loneliness and depression. Each of these negative psychological outcomes has a significant impact on an individual’s immune system and the ability to fight infection. An increasing number of patients recovering from COVID-19 are having lingering cognitive symptoms, including confusion and impaired executive functions, short-term memory issues, and learning difficulties. For those who had compromised cognitive-communication status before COVID-19, we need to be ready for ongoing exacerbation of symptoms. Read On...

She and her colleague, Louisa Williams, had an idea. What if they created a food blog to improve accessibility to quality information on modified diets? So they established realmealsmodified.com and began creating recipes and posting foods that meet texture requirements of the International Dysphagia Diet Standardization Initiative (IDDSI) while looking appetizing and tasting flavorful! Read On...

Carly has been an employee at Rosewood since 2015. In her first year at Rosewood, she worked collaboratively with the kitchen team to revamp the menus so that the diet recommendations match with the diets provided by the food services company. Since then, she has worked hard to train new and existing kitchen staff on diet restrictions and make sure they are comfortable with the administration of current diet orders. She has also worked with CNA and nursing staff to communicate actively when diets change to ensure the entire team is collaborating with regard to patient care. Read On...

CPT Code 96125 (Standardized Cognitive Performance Testing, Per Hour) 

*Note: Clinicians may count interpretation and documentation time toward the minimum minutes only when billing for 96125, and only for Medicare Part B patients. Medicare Part A minutes still follow RAI manual guidelines of direct face-to-face time, which is followed regardless of code definition. Additionally, when administered as the initial evaluation, this code is non-MDS for Part A payers. Read On...

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The focus of SLP respiratory intervention is to improve the patient’s quality of breathing patterns for improved communication, swallow, and patient performance during ADLs or other physical activities. Read On...

Gina Tucker-Roghi, OTD, OTR/L, one of our resources behind the development of the Abilities Care Approach and many of our dementia-related tools, is now a full-time professor at Dominican University in the Occupational Therapy Program and has been pursuing grants and using these grants to research and further develop tools for the older adult population. We continue to have part-time access to her for support, partnership and expertise on specific projects, while also having the privilege of working closely with Gina and her grad students on a variety of projects.  

Gina just got published, and it’s a very relevant and interesting article on applying an age-friendly health systems framework to long-term care. Please take a moment to read the article and share with your teams! How can we use this information to create an even stronger environment for our LTC residents? It provokes thought around the 4 M’s and some very important considerations for us to incorporate for training in our healthcare communities, as well. Click this link to download the full article