Thank you to our guest: Tony Chicotel, JD, MPP, Attorney for California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform (CANHR)
Thank you to our host: Donna Schempp, Geriatric Care Manager, AHWGO Steering Committee
Topic: Why Are Nursing Homes So Scary?
“The revenue in a nursing home is not predicated on the quality of care but the volume of people they serve. There is an incentive to cut staffing in for-profit nursing homes. “
“What makes a good nursing home? One is the leadership in the facility and the other is the staffing level. Good leadership is filtered down to everybody who works there. “
“If you had a magic wand would you change in the nursing home industry? Empower consumers to have more control over how their long term care dollars should be spent. One idea we are just exploring is the idea of a voucher, ….where the consumer can control where they want to go. The other important thing would be to align quality of care with profility. “
“The nursing home industry is a dying industry. It will be a very slow, slow death but they plateaued 30, 40 years ago. People are getting more options and are exercising their options to stay where they are or go to more homelike settings.“
Excerpts from our conversation with Tony Chicotel
Other Resources:
Tony’s Testimony to the Senate’s Special Committee on Pandemic Emergency Response Skilled Nursing Facilities: https://canhrnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Tony_Chicotel_Senate_Testimony_-June_10_2020.pdf
Resources for finding/assessing Nursing Homes:Licensed and certified facilities in California: https://abouthealthtransparency.org/report-card-directory/state-report-cards/california/cal-health-find/
Information about licensed facilities: https://www.cdss.ca.gov/inforesources/community-care-licensing/facility-search-welcome
Five Star Rating System: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/13/business/nursing-homes-ratings-medicare-covid.html
Criticism of Nursing Home rating systems: https://www.cms.gov/Medicare/Provider-Enrollment-and-Certification/CertificationandComplianc/FSQRS
Skilled Nursing Home Care At Home:https://skillednursingnews.com/2021/04/why-snf-at-home-programs-could-provide-a-path-forward-for-traditional-nursing-home-operators/?euid=94eff084f5&utm_source=snn-newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=27c65eef2f
Nursing Home Failures During Covid:https://www.law.georgetown.edu/georgetown-law-journal/wp-content/uploads/sites/26/2021/04/Kohn_Nursing-Homes-COVID-19-and-the-Consequences-of-Regulatory-Failure.pdf
RSVP for the next conversation on May 13th:
Using The Montessori Philosophy For Older Adults Living With Dementia: An Opportunity For Intergenerational Learning