The Nursing Home Podcast

Having worked on the front lines with hundreds of nursing homes to develop effective infection control strategies, Dr. Buffy got a firsthand look at the way in which these facilities were targeted during the height of the pandemic.

She was moved by the stories she heard and problems she observed, to write her best selling novel Broken which highlights the difficulties faced by nursing homes in implementing infection control. 

Most of these difficulties stem predictably from staffing and budget challenges. All nursing homes are required to have at least a part time infection preventionist on staff, but many take on the role while also holding other positions and with little training or hands on experience. 

Dr. Buffy’s company, IPCWell, helps in these common situations by working with facilities to teach and support their infection preventionist in developing efficient and effective methods that will function inside a facility’s means and budget. 

However, a considerable amount of difficulty is also brought about by the barrage of continuously changing rules and regulations.

Responsible regulations are always needed for the functioning of any industry. However, Dr. Buffy states that their sheer volume is crippling for senior care and makes it nearly impossible for facilities to operate inside. 

This came to a head in 2020 when, instead of helping nursing homes suffering from no PPE and with overworked staff who were risking their lives, the government invested $80,000,000 in targeted infection control surveys. 

In an effort to show that this money was being put to use, even the smallest action not following regulations word for word was cited. 

Dr. Buffy states that instead of punishing nursing homes, this funding and attention should be put towards helping them and advocating for them. 

The last chapter of Broken  explains how anyone who has a relative in a nursing home can advocate for their facility. 

 

FOLLOW DR. BUFFY

• To purchase Broken
• To follow her on LinkedIn
• To visit the IPCWell website

 

RELATED EPISODES

• Ep. 71: Combating Staff Turnover & Burnout In Nursing Homes
• Ep. 38: Administrator Vs The Surveyor
• Ep. 33: Infection Control - Out of the Binder

1. It's time for a mindset shift. Recruitment needs to be as important as census and marketing. You can even use some of the same resources and people to promote your recruitment activities. 
2. Go out to your local supermarket and stop anyone with scrubs and offer them an interview. Find out where else they're hanging out and develop a presence there on or offline. 
3. Improve the interview process. Treat them like royalty and make them feel like they arrived home. 
4. Have a user-friendly application process, and please, go easy on the paper. Nobody loves filling out tens of pages of the same information over and over again. 
5. Ensure your rates are competitive. 

Need some help? Reach out to Quality Recruit and see how we can help you with this --> [email protected]¬†

 

Related Episodes:

• Ep. 76 - Employee Liabilities
• Ep. 73 - Make Your Staff Want to Stay!
• Ep. 71 - Combating Staff Turnover & Burnout In Nursing Homes

Jennifer has been a practicing physiotherapist for 14 years, and shares about her experiences and what she has learned in this space, as a podcaster, author, and speaker.

She served as her dad’s caregiver for many years while he was housebound and through this experience can empathize and understand the struggles of residents and their families.

Most times, going into long term care is no one’s choice and therefore its essential for residents to feel independent and at-home.

Jennifer approaches every interaction with residents with the understanding that she is in their home and in their space as opposed to them being in her space because she is the therapist.

As a physiotherapist her job is to assess patients mobility, balance, and strength and she strives to enable and empower their independence while also minimizing their fall risk. 

She advises physicians to try and tailor their sessions and treatments to the resident and their goals rather than rushing through and only thinking about the problem, not the person. 

In order for an at-home environment to be established, residents must feel trust and rapport with their physicians and caregivers. 

This rapport can only be gained if caregivers and physicians stay present with residents and remember that their role is to guide and inform, not to be authoritative and make decisions against the resident’s desires. 

Jennifer states that compassion and empathy only takes moments and even small gestures can go a long way towards making residents feel comfortable in their surroundings. 

 

FOLLOW JENNIFER

• Read Her Book - Communication is Care: 9 Empowering Strategies to Guide Patient Healing
• Her Podcast - The Healthcare Provider Happy Hour
• Her LinkedIn

 

RELATED EPISODES

• Ep. 72: Are We Treating Our Seniors Worse Than Horses?
• Ep. 56: Phone Calls Help Alleviate Loneliness in Nursing Homes
• Ep. 54: What is the Greenhouse Model?¬†

After the loss of his grandparent, who received terrible treatment in rehab after surgery, Ryan resolved to address some of the issues in post-acute care by buying a software company already active in that space and using his expertise to build it up. 

VoiceFriend addresses the problem of inefficient communication faced in facilities where the many different stakeholders, including residents, families, and employees make for a quagmire of related issues. 

With varying levels of technological proficiency among these stakeholders, there have to be many different methods in place for communicating and conveying information. 

This type of chaotic system means that information and things said often slip through the cracks or can only be found again after a lengthy search which wastes time and effort. 

While there are other tools designed to improve this problem, they often only cover a section of facility communication or don’t work well with software already in place. 

Ryan explains that VoiceFriend is not a tool but a system designed to serve as the core communication platform of facilities by which all other means of communication already in place pass through. 

The software can convey messages over a wide variety of platforms including text, phone, and even Amazon Alexa.

Recipients can set their own preferences to reflect how they would like to receive communications. 

VoiceFriend’s simplicity and ease of use are great strengths and by integrating it, a facility can dramatically streamline its communication and enhance processes already in place. 

 

FOLLOW RYAN AND VOICEFRIEND

• Website
• LinkedIn

 

RELATED EPISODES

• Ep. 81: Nursing Home Communication¬†
• Ep. 67:¬† Can Nursing Homes Be Less Chaotic?
• Ep. 37: What Should I post on Linkedin?

Jana has represented many healthcare clients and serves as the outside general counsel for a large healthcare entity. 

The False Claims Act was created to address fraud being perpetrated against the government. To free up government time and resources, private individuals referred to as relators were permitted to bring those suits. 

Relators have to be an original source with inside information. In healthcare-related cases, they are often disgruntled, former employees or family members. 

Jana has handled many false claims cases and asserts that the most important first step in making sure that a facility is aware and compliant with the regulations under the False Claims Act is to install a Comprehensive Corporate Compliance Program.

This type of program can be drawn up by a lawyer and details all the regulations that a particular facility will need to follow and what they can do to follow them to avoid causing claims to be made against them.

Common claims in a healthcare setting often involve billing for services that weren’t provided or are insufficient. 

If an operator or administrator catches wind of this, they should investigate immediately and if a violation is found make a voluntary disclosure to the government and pay any difference that might be owed. 

In a worse scenario, the government will find out about the violation first and send a Civil Investigative Demand requesting the production of certain documents or an inner view of an employee. 

In this situation, the facility should act fast to hire experienced counsel and contact the government to negotiate a settlement rather than being taken to court. 

Fox Rothchild has offices all over the country and can provide all sorts of services to healthcare facilities in the areas of corporate employment, real estate, compliance services for if a facility is involved in litigation or receives a subpoena or Civil Investigative Demand.  

 

LEARN MORE ABOUT JANA AND FOX ROTHCHILD LLP

• Website
• LinkedIn

 

RELATED EPISODES

• Ep. 81 - Nursing Home Communication¬†
• Ep. 76 - Employee Liabilities¬†
• Ep. 38 - Administrator Vs The Surveyor

Fast and efficient communication is vital in senior care, and may often be the difference between life or death.

Even disregarding such dire medical circumstances, a typical facility must constantly interface with numerous parties including residents, their families, employees, and external vendors at all times.

Needless to say, without adequate methods in place to streamline all these fractured lines of interaction, accidents are bound to happen. 

Unfortunately, most senior care facilities still use antiquated means of communication.

Terry has spent his whole career modernizing antiquated processes. With Carefeed, he created an all-in-one system that can bring the communication methods of any facility up to speed. 

The platform provides the most up-to-date technologies for every type of interaction that typically occurs in a facility.

Carefeed identifies and addresses all of the outdated, redundant, and faulty communication methods currently in use by a facility, automating and digitizing them. 

Because of its all-inclusive approach, Carefeed is known as the central place for seamless communication and engagement with residents, family, and staff.

FOLLOW TERRY AND CAREFEED

• Website
• LinkedIn

RELATED EPISODES

• Ep. 69: Should Nursing Homes Be On TikTok?
• Ep. 66: We Only Notice When IT Stops Working
• Ep. 30: Don't You Love All That Admission Paperwork?!

As an occupational therapist with an MBA who has, at one point, been responsible for 120 facilities at one time, Jean is an expert in both the care and business sides of senior care. 

With his groundbreaking new designs and programs conceived to influence the lives, thought processes and social engagement of residents, he has become recognized as an incredible innovator in the space. 

Jean’s buildings are structured to engage all five senses. 

Through natural lighting or LED-controlled ‚ÄúSky Ceilings,‚ÄĚ they allow those with memory-related conditions to tell the time.¬†

With a design based on the nineteen twenties, thirties, or forties, residents experiencing Retrogenesis and mentally reverting back to their youth can feel at-home in their surroundings. 

Jean is passionate about the vision of his buildings from a clinical perspective and also understands that this cannot be accomplished without adequate financial backing. 

He tells investors the true story, that by creating these spaces he is reducing clients’ pain and helping them to live longer and healthier lives and that this in-turn makes for significant cash flow. 

With his penchant for innovation, Jean has been planning and developing various new programs and ideas. 

Currently he is evolving his informational senior care, Alzheimer's, and dementia focused video platform Okrah.

Jean first had the idea for this concept after producing his own documentary on one woman’s experience of Alzheimer's and realizing how little media existed around that important topic.

FOLLOW JEAN, THE LANTERN GROUP, AND OKRAH

• LinkedIn
• The Lantern Group¬†
• Okrah

RELATED EPISODES

• Ep. 75: Flooring; The Biggest Difference
• Ep. 72: Are We Treating Our Seniors Worse Than Horses?
• Ep. 70: Memory: It's All In Your Head

Adam Lewis is the CEO of Apploi, a hiring software company centered around healthcare. 

With a background in HR, he has spent lots of time working with healthcare companies to identify and remove roadblocks in their job application processes. 

Two of the largest problems often encountered in healthcare recruiting are: how to attract more candidates into the application funnel and how to successfully move them through said funnel. 

To start with the latter of these issues, Adam states that out of all industries, healthcare takes the longest amount of time to recruit personnel with the average span being 40 days. 

This is often the result of an application being too lengthy and complicated. 

In order to make this process more frictionless, the application should feature fewer questions upfront and be mobile optimized so as to be accessible to nurses, CNAs, and LPNs who will likely be filling it out on their phones. 

The job postings themselves should also be created with the needs of current healthcare workers in mind. 

Rather than going by the old method of copying and pasting the needs of a position, employers must be more creative to grab the attention of job seekers in this modern competitive market. 

Job postings should narrate the experience of company culture, the perks that employees will receive, and the value that they will be regarded with. 

 

FOLLOW ADAM AND APPLOI!

• Website
• LinkedIn

 

RELATED EPISODES

• Ep. 77: CNAs: Make Them Want To Stay
• Ep. 73: Make Your Staff WANT To Stay!
• Ep. 71: Combating Staff Turnover & Burnout In Nursing Homes

Jeffrey is the founder and CEO of Cambridge Realty Capital, a real estate company centered around the nursing and senior care market that has made over 500 transactions in that space.

From his own experience, he states that those looking to make their first nursing home real estate deal and become an operator often possess experience in the industry but lack the funds.

For this reason, it is essential for first-time deal-makers to find a good investing partner to make the purchase with them.

Firstly though, they must be sure to make an economical deal with the seller that is written down in the form of a tangible document.

This will allow them to show the deal to different parties without being worried about people going behind their back. Maintaining this control is the most important part of making a deal.  

Next is the question of loans and finding a good lender to work with.

HUD Loans, supplied by the Department of Housing and Urban Development, are an excellent resource but require the assistance of a HUD Lender who can interface with the department.

Lastly Jeffrey states the market is very lucrative and for those experienced in the administrative side of senior care, it's always a good time to break into the business.

 

FOLLOW JEFFREY AND CAMBRIDGE REALTY CAPITAL

• Website
• LinkedIn

 

RELATED EPISODES

• Ep. 52: Investors Focusing on the Senior Care Space - LinkedIn Best Practices
• Ep. 40: Did The Coronavirus Make Nursing Homes Rich?
• Ep. 39: Administrators Speak Up; Time For a Change!

Quanisah Bernard is a talented and experienced CNA and, with more than fourteen years of the profession under her belt, has a deep knowledge of the ins and outs of CNA culture.

After graduating from high-school in 2006 she started working at a nursing home in the dietary department. Soon after, she took a month-long CNA class which kicked off her journey as a CNA. 

Since Quanisah had entered her first facility right after high-school she felt as though it was a second family. 

Rather than treating her as a cog in the machine the administrators noticed her talent and proceeded to foster her skills and give her some chances to shine and be recognized. 

It was only when the management changed and became less focused on providing this important acknowledgement and care to their employees that Quanisah decided to leave. 

Though she had begun to think about the lack of a good salary, she states that it was this particular shift in company culture that forced her hand. 

Though at this time, when senior care facilities are under intense pressure, it is difficult for them to pay employees a higher salary, it is important that they follow through with all financially related promises. 

Quanisah states that even though the assurance of a raise or bonus may reflect well on a facility, not following through will cause CNAs to leave and let their colleagues know not to work there either. 

Lastly, she explains that getting involved with colleges would be a great way to find and attract potential future CNAs who will be looking to apply for internships and positions at facilities.  

 

RELATED EPISODES 

• Ep. 77: CNAs: Make Them Want To Stay
• Ep. 73: Make Your Staff WANT To Stay!
• Ep. 71: Combating Staff Turnover & Burnout In Nursing Homes