Nimbus EMR News

News and Information relevant to the your business and career, courtesy of Nimbus EMR.

Chorus group brightens days at LTC facilities

16 August 2011 20:17:52 Over the course of a day, long-term care residents may not receive much visual or auditory stimulation.

However, when the O'Neill Singers visit facilities in West Virginia, people really "change and liven up," group member Jane Hutchinson told the News and Sentinel.

The O'Neill Singers have been performing at venues such as assisted living facilities, long-term care facilities and rehabilitation centers for the past 27 years. Currently, they play at least two gigs per week.

"Our program includes a lot of traditional songs - 'happy songs,' I call them - because we love to have the residents join in," chorus director Pat Carte told the media outet. "(Residents') faces just light up when they're singing."

Member Ruth Earley harped on the importance of visiting tenants because "Someday, we're going to need someone to visit us." 

Music has been scientifically shown to have a therapeutic effect on LTC facility members, McKnight's reports. According to a recent New York State Department of Health study, individualized music reduces dementia-related agitation by up to 80 percent. 

Georgia prepares to roll out patient health exchange program

16 August 2011 16:45:38 Having access to some of the information that is stored in medical practices' and long-term care facilities' electronic health record systems may soon be a reality for some consumers in northwest Georgia, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports.

The Georgia Cancer Coalition and state Department of Community Health are using a $1.7 million federal grant to set up a "patient-focused health information exchange," one that the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology told the news source could eventually grow into a national trend.

Some of the possible capabilities for the exchange include being able to determine who accesses personal health data and having the ability to ask a nurse or doctor a question by sending him or her a private email.

Ricardo Azziz, president of Georgia Health Sciences University, said the exchange may help people be more responsible for their own health, since "there's a large segment of the population who think that healthcare is somebody else's problem."

The federal government has issued similar grants and incentives to providers who adopt health information technology or address other health issues. The Department of Health and Human Services recently announced it would be handing out $49 million in grants to help local and state health departments improve the quality of care.

Protest planned to save New Jersey LTC facility

16 August 2011 9:57:38 The Homestead, a long-term care facility located in Sussex County, New Jersey, was recently put for up sale after the county board determined it to be an economic burden, the Star-Ledger reports.

Housing 102 residents and 110 full-time employees, the facility accrued more than $800,000 in deficits last year. The county estimated that funding building improvements would cost around $7 million over the next decade, which prompted the sale.

However, residents of the facility are not leaving without a fight. A protest by employees, occupants and their family members will be held this week in an attempt to sway the decision.

Protesters will be bussed to a downtown Newton location and equipped with signs reading "Save The Homestead."

"102 senior citizens are going to be displaced," Linda Hunter-Conklin, chairwoman of the Save The Homestead committee, told the media outlet. "We've worked here all of our lives and raised our families here."

In addition to the protests, Hunter-Conklin has also organized letter-writing and petition-signing campaigns, the New Jersey Herald reports.  

 

LTC facility switches ownership following arbitration agreement

16 August 2011 9:55:07 Medicaid cuts forced Buffalo, New York-based long-term care facility Waterfront Healthcare Center to announce that it would be closing two years ago, the Buffalo News reports.  More

GE EMR iPad app proves to have many benefits

16 August 2011 9:51:21 An extension of GE Healthcare's Centricity Advance platform, was released for the iPad this week, to be used as a cloud-based electronic medical record application by physicians, InformationWeek reports.  More

Conditions limiting oxygen flow to brain can result in dementia

15 August 2011 16:36:38 A recently released study from researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, revealed that elderly women with sleep apnea are at greater risk of dementia and long-term care entry, McKnight's reports.  More