Need Ideas for Celebrating National Nursing Home Week?

National Nursing Home Week started on May 9, but it's not too late to plan a great celebration for your staff and residents!

Here are some great ideas from the 2010 National Nursing Home Week Planning Guide, which you can download here. Each idea ties in to this year's National Nursing Home Week theme, "Enriching Every Day."

Enrichment Through Words

• Grab a Pen and Make a Friend: Establish a pen pal club within your facility or with another facility, high school, volunteer group, etc.
• Poetry Reading: Have an "open mic night" where anyone is welcome to read a poem they wrote or share their favorite poem.
• "Thank You" Note Scavenger Hunt: Encourage residents to write thank-you notes to their favorite staff person or resident and tape the notes all over the facility. Staff members will then find the notes, collect them and read them out loud during a staff appreciation lunch. The staff members could even write a thank-you note back!
• Share Stories with the Veterans History Project: Learn how the veterans in your facility can share their stories with the rest of the world by clicking here.

Enrichment Through Music

• American Senior Idol: Host a version of the popular TV show in your facility! Offer a reward to anyone who participates.
• "Senior Prom": Partner with a local high school to participate in their prom, or host one in your facility!

Enrichment Through Images

• Take Pictures: Encourage staff and residents to make their memories of National Nursing Home Week last by taking pictures with disposable cameras.

Enrichment Through Crafts

• Quilt: Chances are, you already have a quilter in your facility who can assist you with helping other residents unleash their creative ability through fabric. When your quilt is completed, it can be donated to the local library or homeless shelter or kept in the facility as a token from the week.
• Birthday Boxes: Ask residents to decorate a "Birthday Box." These can be shoe boxes, tissue boxes or any small box with a lid. After the box is decorated, have staff and residents write down special notes about everyone and place them in the respective Birthday Box. You could also write notes during the resident's birthday week. After the notes are collected, read them aloud.

Enrichment Through Special Services

• Staff Appreciation Day: Make one day during the week all about staff! Plan a special lunch for them, contact local media or encourage residents to show their appreciation for the staff members closest to them.
• Prayer Service: Invite residents and staff to attend a special service honoring the members of the nursing home "family" that also remembers those who have passed on.
• Mothers and Fathers Brunch: Show all mothers and fathers how special they are by preparing and serving a meal in their honor.
• Memory Garden: Plant a special garden to commemorate the passing of loved ones or friends.

We'd love to hear how your facility is celebrating National Nursing Home Week!

Are You Ready for National Nursing Home Week?

National Nursing Home Week is just around the corner! This year, the celebration runs from May 9-15.
Sponsored by the American Health Care Association (AHCA), National Nursing Home Week is designated as an opportunity to celebrate nursing and rehabilitation facilities nationwide. The theme of this year's celebration is "Enriching Every Day." According to AHCA, "This year's theme cannot be expressed by words alone; it takes being there - seeing and hearing life around you - to appreciate how 'enriching' happens in a long-term care setting, from nursing homes to post-acute care to assisted living facilities."


AHCA has posted suggested celebratory activities on their website. We'd also love to hear how your facility is celebrating! You can leave a comment here on the blog or, if you have a Facebook account, click here to tell us all about your plans!

Happy National Nurses Week!

Today is the first day of National Nurses Week, which is celebrated every year from May 6 through May 12, Florence Nightingale's birthday. This year, the theme of National Nurses Week is "Nurses: Caring Today for a Healthier Tomorrow."

Several days within National Nurses Week celebrate specific groups of nurses. May 6, the first day of the celebration, is also known as National Nurses Day. As of 1998, May 8 was designated as National Student Nurses Day, and as of 2003, the Wednesday of each National Nurses Week is National School Nurse Day.

To learn more about the history of National Nurses Week and download materials to use at your facility, click here.

Happy Cinco de Mayo from ProMed!

Happy Cinco de Mayo from ProMed! We had a great celebration at our corporate office today. Our team really got into the spirit of the day - especially Marketing Production Specialist Patrick Lamorte!

CDC: Many Emergency Department Visits by Nursing Home Residents are Preventable

A new report from the CDC - based on findings from the 2004 National Nursing Home Survey - found that a large number of the events that send nursing home residents to the emergency department (ED) are preventable. The report identified conditions and resident characteristics that nursing homes and policymakers might consider targeting to reduce preventable ED visits.

According to the report, 8 percent of U.S. nursing home residents had an ED visit in the past 90 days. Of those residents, 40 percent had potentially preventable ED visits. The number one potentially preventable reason that nursing home residents visited the ED? Injuries from falls.

Here's the breakdown of conditions that accounted for potentially preventable ED visits:

36%: Injuries from falls

19%: Heart conditions

12%: Pneumonia

The remaining 33% was labeled "other conditions" and includes fever, mental status changes, gastrointestinal bleeding, urinary tract infections, metabolic disturbances and skin diseases.

Nursing home residents with a potentially preventable ED visit also tended to have a shorter length of stay at the nursing home and were taking more medications.

To learn more, click here.

Tavenner To Serve as Acting Administrator for CMS

According to a post on the online version of McKnight's Long-Term Care News, Marilyn Tavenner will be serving as the acting administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).

Tavenner will hold the post while Donald Berwick undergoes confirmation proceedings to become CMS's new administrator. Once Berwick is confirmed, Tavenner will return to her role as CMS's principal deputy administrator. Before she came to CMS, Tavenner was the secretary for health and human resources in Virgina.

Select Covidien Shiley Tracheostomy Tubes Recalled

Covidien is recalling certain lots of its Shiley tracheostomy tubes and custom/specialty tubes among reports of leaks in the tubes' pilot balloons. If there are leaks in the balloons, the cuffs aren't able to hold air, causing ventilation to not work properly and possibly resulting in a decrease in the amount of oxygen in the blood or a sudden increase in the amount of carbon dioxide in the blood, especially if the resident requires assisted mechanical ventilation. The FDA advises that these situations could result in serious injury or even death.

If you have purchased tracheostomy products with any of the affected lot numbers from ProMed, please call Janice at our corporate office for assistance with a replacement. Janice can be reached at 800-648-5190, x 7616.

To view the lot numbers being recalled, click here.