Chicago Nursing Home Residents Form Biker Gang

At ProMed, we're constantly trying to stay in tune with what the elderly population enjoys and how they spend their time. Today we ran across this story about a group of Chicago nursing home residents who decided to form a one-night-only "biker gang" and take over a local watering hole. These are some of the coolest elderly people we've ever seen - click here to read the full story. We're sure you'll agree!

Inaccurate Readings Prompt LifeScan Test Strip Recall

LifeScan, Inc. is voluntarily recalling eight lots of its OneTouch SureStep Test Strips. According to the manufacturer, the strips are being recalled because they may provide falsely low glucose results, which could lead to poor blood glucose control.

The eight lots of strips that are being recalled are:
#2969251 (100-ct OneTouch SureStep)
#2969798 (100-ct OneTouch SureStep)
#2982369 (100-ct OneTouch SureStep)
#2983467 (100-ct OneTouch SureStep)
#2969795 (50-ct OneTouch SureStep)
#2982566 (50-ct OneTouch SureStep)
#2969481 (50-ct OneTouch SureStep - Medicare/Mail Order)
#2998193 (50-ct OneTouch SureStep - Medicare/Mail Order)

Lot numbers can be found on outer cartons and test strip vials. For more information on the recall, click here.

If you're affected by this recall and you're considering choosing a different product, we hope you'll contact ProMed to learn about our Compliance Solutions!

Interview Committee at Sunny Hill Empowers Residents

We love hearing about new and creative ways in which our customers provide exceptional care to their residents. We thought you'd enjoy learning how Sunny Hill Nursing Home in Will County, Illinois has taken steps to empower the people who call their facility home.

In the past two years, the Resident Interview Committee at Sunny Hill has approved all 63 of the facility's new hires. The committee consists of six or seven residents and ensures that residents have a voice in determining who cares for them. The Resident Interview Committee was featured in the February 19 edition of Members Only, a publication of the Health Care Council of Illinois.

According to Becky Haldorson, Sunny Hill's assistant administrator, the Resident Interview Committee is an extension of the facility's dedication to resident-centered care. Residents are nominated to the committee by Haldorson or current committee members.

During the hiring process, department heads select candidates from a pool of applicants. The Resident Interview Committee then meets with the candidates to approve or reject the hiring. The committee's decision is final. If they reject a candidate, the hiring process starts over.

Haldorson said that residents find involvement with hiring decisions to be a rewarding experience.

"They are very involved and wholeheartedly committed," she was quoted as saying. "They all understand the impact of what they are doing and know their voice is heard, valued and appreciated."

Coming Soon to a Trade Show Near You!

Check out our new trade show banners! These will be on display at shows where we're not utilizing our full-size booth. A big thank-you goes out to ProMed graphic designer David Starke for designing them!

Clean Glucometers between Residents - or Risk a Citation

Word on the street is more and more facilities are getting hit with Immediate Jeopardy citations for not cleaning their glucometers in between uses.

Remember, the updated CMS guidance for Tag F-441 requires that caregivers both change lancets and clean glucometers in between residents. The tag was recently revised - the most recent revision came in December of 2009 - so there might still be some lingering confusion about what's expected.

To see the revised Tag F-441, click here. To view additional guidance and rationales from the CDC, click here and here.

2010 Flu Vaccine Will Protect Against H1N1

There's good news for those who loathe the flu and the needlesticks that go hand-in-hand with getting vaccinated: Next season's flu vaccine will also protect against H1N1, eliminating the need for two vaccines to cover both the seasonal flu and H1N1.

Every February, according to a CNN.com article, the Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee advises the FDA on which flu strains to include in the next season's flu shot or spray. The recommendations are made early on in the year so that manufacturers have plenty of time to make enough vaccine by September or October, when health officials recommend people start receiving flu shots. Right now, the only licensed method for making vaccines is to grow them inside eggs, which takes a long time.

The CDC's most recent estimates show that between 41 million and 84 people in the U.S. have been infected with H1N1 since April of 2009. H1N1 was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization in June.

CDC officials are cautioning that the flu season isn't yet over. Anyone who is worried about contracting the flu should consider getting the separate seasonal flu and H1N1 vaccines that are currently available.

Illinois Nursing Home Safety Task Force Releases Final Report

On February 19, the final report from Illinois' Nursing Home Safety Task Force was presented to Governor Pat Quinn. Governor Quinn commissioned the task force on October 3, 2009 in light of the Chicago Tribune publishing a series of articles on violence and poor care in the state's nursing homes. Task force members were charged with investigating the causes of these problems and making suggestions on how to better protect Illinois' nursing home residents.

Over the course of four months, task force members met with approximately 50 nursing home residents, owners, researchers, advocates and experts in the field. Based on what they learned, what are they recommending?

"Emphasis on recovery, therapeutic care and adequate appropriate housing in the community will significantly reduce the number of younger nursing home residents living with vulnerable older adults in institutional settings and thus significantly reduce the potential violent crimes," the final report read.

According to the Chicago Tribune, key recommendations in the report include:

1. Doing a better job of screening the people who are admitted to nursing homes in order to prevent violent criminals from living side by side with vulnerable older adults.
2. Placing dangerous mentally ill people in secure, monitored facilities where they can get the treatment they need. These facilities might be public or private psychiatric centers, or they might be segregated wings of nursing homes or specialized facilities known as forensic nursing homes.
3. Raising standards for facilities that accept psychiatric patients. In general, nursing home staff members are not properly trained or equipped to deal with psychiatric patients. Staff members should be better trained on the needs of psychiatric patients. Facilities that don't comply with this training could face steeper fines.
4. Creating more home- and community-based service options for psychiatric patients who are currently housed in nursing homes. The goal is to move many of the thousands of mentally ill who currently live in nursing homes into settings where they can receive better, more personalized care. Another plus of this idea: patients tend to thrive in small group settings like the ones being proposed.

To view the complete report, click here.

Smile for a Happy Heart

Need another excuse to smile? How about a healthier heart?

A study at Columbia University rated the happiness of more than 1,700 Canadian adult with no heart problems in 1995. A decade later, they examined the 145 members of the group who developed heart problems and found that happier people were less likely to have had one.

To view the study's abstract on the European Heart Journal Web site, click here.

CMS Names New Principal Deputy Administrator

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has selected a new principal deputy administrator! Marilyn Tavenner has been secretary of health and human services for the state of Virginia since 2006. She has also worked as a hospital executive and front-line caregiver.

The American Health Care Association (AHCA) applauded Tavenner's selection, saying "Tavenner will bring a broad range of experience to her role in directing our nation's Medicare and Medicaid programs."

CMS has yet to have its top position, administrator, filled. The New York Times recently called this empty post "a strike against reform" and pointed out the difficulties the next administrator will face. Charlene Frizzera is CMS's acting administrator.

Database of Dangerous Caregivers Incomplete, Government Warns

Twenty-two years ago, Congress ordered the creation of a database that it thought could be used to stop dangerous or incompetent caregivers from crossing state lines and potentially harming additional patients. The database is finally set for rollout - but with some serious gaps in information, according to an article in the Los Angeles Times.

The database was designed to allow facilities to check for disciplinary actions taken against nurses, pharmacists, psychologists and other licensed health professionals across the country. However, a joint investigation by the Los Angeles Times and ProPublica, a nonprofit news organization, showed that potentially thousands of serious disciplinary actions are currently missing from the database. Some of that missing information is about providers who have harmed patients.

The head of the Health Resources and Services Administration and the Secretary of Health and Human Services have sent letters to the nation's governors asking them for immediate help in helping to fill the gaps in the database. This summer, the federal government will begin publicly listing the names of state agencies that do not comply.

The database is still slated to be rolled out on March 1, but facilities will be warned the information it contains is incomplete.

Check Out Our Amazon Store!

ProMed now has a storefront on Amazon.com! Be sure to check us out the next time you visit - we're currently offering Compliance briefs, Get Fresh Skin Caring hand sanitizer, Get Relief Skin Protectant with Breathable Barrier and disposable wipes. Right now, all of our products ship for free!

Here's a quick link to our storefront. Let us know if there are any other products you would like to see us offer on Amazon!

Popular Diabetes Drug Linked to Women's Fracture Risk

A new study published in The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism has linked the use of a commonly prescribed diabetes medication to an increased risk of fracture in older women.

The study's authors found that women who take thiazolidinedione (or TZD) have a 50% increase in the risk of bone fractures after one year on the drug. Women over the age of 65 were at particularly high risk. The authors also discovered that these fractures occurred in unusual places. The greatest percentage of fractures in the elderly occur in the hip or vertebra, yet TZD was associated with increased fractures in the upper and distal lower extremities.

Men were also included in the study's subject pool, but did not appear to be affected by TZD in the same way.

To view the study's abstract, click here.

Our Manufacturing Partners Help Provide Relief to Haiti

We're happy to see that so many of our manufacturing partners are helping to provide relief to Haiti! Here's what a few of them have done:

Graham-Field joined forces with BluSource to donate more than $200,000 in wheelchairs, ambulatory aids and medical supplies for victims of the Haiti earthquake.

Sage Products donated 55,000 prepackaged baths to Haiti to be used for medical triage and in hospitals. They also sent 600 cases of Comfort Bath Cleansing Washcloths.

Welch Allyn partnered with Heart to Heart International to send stethoscopes, diagnostic sets and blood pressure gauges/cuffs to Haiti in "Ready Relief Boxes" and Medical Surge Modules. The company also matched all of its employees' donation to the Haiti relief effort and set up a Haiti relief donation page on its public Web site for visitors. To learn more, click here.

Healthy Adults Need Less Sleep as They Age

A new study in the journal SLEEP suggests that healthy older adults have a reduced need for sleep and can expect to be less sleepy during the day than younger adults.

The study, conducted at the Clinical Research Centre of the University of Surrey, involved 110 healthy adults without sleep disorders or sleep complaints. Participants ranged in age from 20 to 83 years old.

Results showed that during a night of eight hours in bed, total sleep time decreased significantly and progressively with age. Older adults (aged 66 to 83 years) slept about 20 minutes less than middle-aged adults (aged 40 to 55 years). Middle-aged adults slept 23 minutes less than young adults (aged 20 to 30 years).

The number of awakenings and the amount of time spent awake after initial sleep onset increased significantly with age, and the amount of time spent in deep sleep decreased across the age groups. Even with decreases in sleep time, intensity and continuity, the older adults in the study were less sleepy during the day.

The study's authors believe that their findings have implications for the treatment of insomnia in older adults, many of whom might be unaware of their reduced sleep needs.

To view the study's abstract, click here.

Study: Handgrip Strength an Effective Way to Evaluate Risk of Death

A new study published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal found that handgrip strength is an effective predictor for all-cause mortality in the world's oldest population, seniors who are 85 years and older.

In the study, a group of 555 seniors in the Netherlands were evaluated for handgrip strength at age 85 and again at age 89. Seniors who had low handgrip strength at both ages as well as greater measurable decline in handgrip strength over time were linked to higher rates of all-cause mortality.

The study's authors concluded that handgrip strength could be helpful to caregivers in identifying which seniors are at the greatest risk of death. It could also potentially be used to increase survival rates by applying muscle-strengthening techniques to these seniors.

Nursing Home Census Visits Already Underway

According to an article in McKnight's Long-Term Care News, census workers have already begun visiting nursing homes in advance of National Census Day on April 1.

Nursing homes are considered to be "group quarters," which makes them eligible for advance visits. The Group Quarters Advance Visit began on February 1 and will continue through March 19. After this visit, census workers will return to count each facility's residents and classify the type of group quarters.

A few additional tips on how the census works in nursing homes:

• Ideally, residents should complete the census forms themselves. If they are unable to do so, a census worker or staff member may help them.
• Because nursing home residents are included in the facility's count, family members of nursing home residents are asked to leave residents off their own census forms, even if they will later return home. Otherwise, residents might be counted twice.

To learn more about the 2010 census, click here.

New Study Links Soft Drinks to Pancreatic Cancer

A new study in the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention has linked the regular consumption of sugary soft drinks to the development of pancreatic cancer. The study's authors found that individuals who consumed two or more soft drinks a week were at a statistically higher risk of developing pancreatic cancer.

Sugar-sweetened soft drinks and juices have a high glycemic load compared to other foods and beverages, and both of these drinks have been hypothesized as pancreatic cancer risk factors. However, the study found no statistically significant association between the consumption of juice and the risk of pancreatic cancer.

To view the study's abstract, click here.

Almost Half of Nurses Plan a Career Switch

According to a new survey of registered nurses, nearly one-third of RNs say they will not be working in their current job a year from now and close to half of them plan to alter their career path to either leave the nursing field entirely or reduce their contribution to direct patient care.

A driving force in that decision? The fact that nearly half of the nurses surveyed said that their jobs are affecting their health.

These findings were part of the 2010 Survey of Registered Nurses: Job Satisfaction and Career Plans, conducted by AMN Healthcare. The survey also addressed how RNs have altered their careers plans due to the recession, how they might respond to an economic recovery and whether they believe healthcare reform will address the nurse shortage.

To learn more about the survey, click here.

H1N1 Update: Millions of Vaccine Doses Will Expire on February 15

According to the CDC, millions of doses of the Sanofi Pasteur 2009 H1N1 vaccine will expire on February 15. All lots of the monovalent vaccine in pre-filled syringes that were not included in two previous recalls should be administered by February 15, 2010, regardless of the expiration date on their packages. These vaccines were originally set to expire between March and June of 2011.

The CDC reported that the expiration date has been changed to ensure that the vaccine meets potency standards. There are no safety concerns with the affected lots of the vaccine and people who received vaccines from the lots with shortened shelf lives do not need to take any action.

There are approximately 12 million doses of the vaccine in the affected lots. Sanofi Pasteur also sent letters this week to healthcare providers who received shipments of the affected lots to notify them of the earlier expiration date.

To learn more, click here.

New Gadgets Intrigue Long-Term Care

The marketplace is awash in new gadgets that are showing promise for use in the long-term care sector. Here are two we like.

The Wii Balance Board
Researchers at the University of Melbourne found that the Wii Balance Board can precisely quantify a resident's center of pressure (COP), an important component of standing balance. It's also inexpensive, portable and widely available, making it even more attractive. When compared to a standard laboratory-grade force platform, the Wii Balance Board was determined to be a valid tool for assessing standing balance at a fraction of the cost of the force platform.

This isn't the first time we've talked about the Wii's usefulness to long-term care. To view our entry on the Wii's social and rehabilitation applications, click here.

The GeoSkeeper
In the words of its manufacturer, Aerotel Medical Systems, the GeoSkeeper is a "personal communicator with distress alarm and GPS location." This device is worn on the wrist and includes a distress button and integrated active GPS system. When needed, a warning signal is activated and the device provides accurate location of users in need. It also contains a built-in cellular speakerphone that enables the wearer to make voice calls to numbers stored in speed dialing buttons. Wearers can also receive calls from any caller or from the device's remote monitoring center.

More Than One-Third of U.S. Nursing Homes Have Signed Up for Advancing Excellence

The Advancing Excellence in America's Nursing Homes campaign is continuing to gain momentum! As of January 31, 37.8 percent of nursing homes are participating in Phase 2 of the campaign. This includes 4,708 nursing homes that were charter members and 1,161 new participants. There are also 2,537 consumers and 1,029 nursing home staff members who have joined the campaign.

The goal of Advancing Excellence in America's Nursing Homes, according to the campaign's Web site, is "Helping nursing homes make a difference in the lives of residents and staff."

Participants are required to choose three goals (one clinical goal, one organizational goal and one other goal) from the following list of eight:

1. Staff Turnover
2. Consistent Assignment
3. Restraints
4. Pressure Ulcers
5. Pain
6. Advance Care Planning
7. Resident/Family Satisfaction
8. Staff Satisfaction

To learn more about the campaign, click here.

Virtual Colonoscopy Shows Promise for At-Risk Seniors

According to a new study published in the journal Radiology, virtual colonography is a safe and effective way to screen older adults at risk for colon cancer.

Colon perforation - a potential complication of standard colorectal cancer screening exams - is eliminated with computed tomographic colonography (CTC). In addition, the colonoscopy referral rate with CTC is 15.3 percent, which is slightly lower than other Medicare-covered colorecal cancer screening exams.

To view the study's abstract, click here.