by Jay Luxenberg, MD

People use their tablet for a variety of purposes. I find my iPad a very useful supplement for the memory I no longer have. I’d like to base my practice on the best of the large randomized trials that are out there. I think there must have been a time when my brain sufficed to keep the acronyms straight – remembering them all from AASK (intensive blood-pressure control in hypertensive chronic kidney disease, published in NEJM 2010) to WOSCOPS (prevention of coronary heart disease with pravastatin in men with hypercholesterolemia, also in NEJM, 1995). As the number of trials and the crazy acronyms have proliferated, my cortex has not been able to keep up with the challenge. Thus the role of an iPad app called MyStudies. It presents the data on 228 complete studies (and is frequently updated). It works on a subscription model, with the app free and the annual subscription currently $10.

by Jay Luxenberg, MD

On May 24, CMS posted an update entitled Advanced Copy: Dementia Care in Nursing Homes: Clarification to Appendix P State Operations Manual (SOM) and Appendix PP in the SOM for F309 – Quality of Care and F329 – Unnecessary Drugs.  This document includes a color-coded version of these sections of the States Operation Manual indicated exactly where the changes have been made. They have also posted three mandatory surveyor training videos that we can view that are intended to train the surveyors on this topic. It is well worth your time reviewing this material, which is surely going to influence future surveys.  Pay attention to the examples in the videos, indicating what the surveyors are being told constitutes actual harm and immediate jeopardy.

CALTCM Vice President and Co-Chair of the Policy & Professional Services Committee

In addition to the historical duties of the PPSC, CALTCM is utilizing PPSC members to forge strategic relationships with the California Association of Healthcare Facilities [CAHF], the California Coalition for Culture Change [CCCC], and other key partners and co-stakeholders within our state.

For example, CAHF's membership (since 1950) is comprised of over 1250 long-term care (LTC) healthcare facilities which serve a wide spectrum of post-acute care needs state-wide.  Karl Steinberg, MD, CMD [Co-Chair of the PPSC of CALTCM] has been instrumental as the principal liaison as a member of CAHF’s Government Relations Committee and in his role as Vice Chair of the Quality Subcommittee at CAHF. 

Although we continue to hear about the graying American and the increase in the number of the “oldest old,” there is another demographic trend in play which is filling our nursing homes with another group—younger disabled people. Nursing home facilities, regulations and activities are designed to care for elderly frail women. When caring for younger residents, staff identify different care needs, expectations and approaches and little guidance on what to do. In response, AMDA set up a task force of experts from around the United States who are for larger populations of younger residents in long term care and asked them to develop a resource to help the nursing home community cope with this influx. The result is “The Younger Adult in the Long Term Care Setting,” AMDA’s newest addition to its LTC Information Series.