Long Term Care Facility Study Outline

Improving the long-term health care facility requires effective needs assessment of the staff, stakeholders, and the community members. Ensuring appropriate and satisfactorily care of those who live and work in the facility requires a strategic process of needs assessment and documentation. The strategic process may require the confrontation of the taken-for-granted in the current facility, private consultation of certain stakeholders, revisiting the known scenes and meaningfully connecting the previously unconnected facility dreams, “vis-à-vis” the organizational vision and mission statements. In providing superior and meaningful care for clients, staff and community members it is imperative that we prudently involve them in the assessment processes. In this paper, I will delineate the processes used to identify the needs of the facility, staff and the community, in addition to other ancillary needs. Additionally, I will address how I will address the major needs of the staff, stakeholders and the community.

The Continuum of Care is the variety of health care services provided to numerous individuals who are in need of it. All the various Long Term Care providers work as a unit, helping an individual handle their disability with various health care amenities accessible. The Continuum of Care, as stated in Long Term Care: Managing Across the Continuum (2010), is “comprehensive, integrated, and client-oriented”. All the services offered should be client-based and cater to the client’s needs and suitable care. The client’s should be able to obtain services when it is needed from the provider, making it comprehensive. All the different Long Term Care providers should be interconnected between one another, because their goal is all the same. Their goal is to care for the client’s needs. The Continuum of Care consists of: nursing facilities, sub acute care, assisted living, residential care, elderly housing, and a variety of community-based services (Pratt, 2010). All these different providers work together to care for the individuals within the health care industry, creating the continuum and making it integrated. The continuum has many positive attributes, along with many barriers. The range of barriers are: poor transitions from Long Term Care setting to setting for the clients, the continuum is reimbursement-driven, it is fragmented and uncoordinated, it is under staffed with medical professionals, and there are major language and literacy problems.

These agencies expect long-term care facilities to maintain an environment that will emphasize the importance of one’s quality of life and quality of care (Walsh, 2014).

The continuum of institutional long-term care is for patients whose needs are not adequately met in a more community-based setting. It is for individuals who need more dependency. There are two ends of the continuum of institutional long-term care spectrum. On the one end there are the individuals that may only need basic personal or custodial care (Shi & Singh, 2015, p. 399). An example of personal and custodial care can include help with walking, bladder training, or just helping with bathing. On the other end there are the individuals that may need more round the clock care with nursing or specialized services along with the basic needs (Shi & Singh, 2015, p. 399).

The information contained in this report was gathered in a private nursing home over 2 weeks that for the sake of this essay, be called “facility x”

Health care is a fascinating industry. So many types of care are included within the industry. Health care can be very broad or very specific. Health care is also comprised of different types of health care. One specific sector is long-term health care. Long-term care plays a huge role in the health care continuum. This paper will define long-term care and a continuum as well as discuss the services provided and how these services fit in the continuum of care, the resources that go along with long-term care and how it contributes to overall health care resources, and how long-term care services

The need for effective health care and incidence of chronic health conditions are expected to increase considerably with the aging of the baby boomers’ population. It is estimated that number of Americans with chronic health conditions will reach 150 million by the year 2030 (Joseph 2006). Furthermore, current long-term care facilities designed decades ago are lagging behind the legal regulation that were established, while not accommodating the needs of the staff and the clients comfortably. Some the facilities are facing regulatory challenges that emanate from the original design and intended use. Subsequently, the requirements for cost-effective long-term care facilities must be carefully considered and planned for to accommodate current and emerging needs of all stake holders. We need to redesign our facility to meet regulatory challenges, emerging technological needs and future health care needs of the consumers and other stakeholders. Successful and effective design in long-term care originates with a master plan. In this paper, I will focus on renovation of existing long-term care facility, summarize my research findings including explanation of the need for the facility renovation and summarize the research findings and describe the types of facilities and services offered in my local community, and explore the role of health care administrators in facilities planning decisions to meet legal and regulatory challenges while including the anticipated

Our text discusses the importance of funding long term care. In this day and age the average lifespan is expanding which means the demand for long term care facilities may increase. The longer we live, the more likely we are to need long term health care services and supports. Quadagno (2014) notes that here in the United States, long term care facilities and nursing home organizations are funded primarily by Medicaid. While Medicaid and Medicare services are beneficial to the aging population, the funding does not adequately allow residents of nursing homes the best of care.

From the literature reviewed, it was noted the nursing home staff skill level and quality of life among residents:

Assisted Living Facilities (ALFs) have transformed tremendously over the past 10 years. ALFs provide outstanding services for seniors who wish to remain independent but still need some assistance with daily living. They are now designed to be more homelike and equipped with many features. Some of these features include libraries, computer labs, fitness centers, dining rooms, beauty salons and even indoor swimming pools. About one million Americans reside in ALFs across the country. This number is projected to almost double by 2030.

Assisted living has become the generic name for most senior living facilities. However, today these facilities come in many different sizes and levels of care. Early in history there were only two choices for seniors, they could age at home with family or they could enter a nursing home. Many seniors who couldn’t completely live on their own and were still to some degree independent and able bodied did not need higher levels of care offered at nursing facilities; creating a need for different types of senior living. Assisted living became a more ideal lifestyle for seniors who wanted to age independently. Facilities have now begun to tailor their offerings to specific populations creating specialties with differing levels of care. With the U.S. population aging there is not only an increase in number of senior facilities but also their characteristics.

Long-term care (LTC) is meant for persons who have medical needs that extend beyond a specific spell of illness. Nursing homes and home health care agencies are the traditional model of LTC. Many newer ideas about how to provide extended care have evolved more recently. What are some of these models, and what are each of their aims?

Furthermore, to address the looming crisis in long-term care staffing a shift in didactic practices, payment reform in both the public and private sectors so that compensation can be enhanced, and development of competencies of licensed professionals and direct care providers as well as continuing education related to the aging for direct care providers. A collaborative approach must be developed amongst administrators, educators and faculty, advocacy groups and state legislators to increase interest and training in all fields of

Providing quality care in Long-Term Care (LTC) facilities is an ongoing challenge faced by administrators throughout the United States. There are many hurdles that need leveled in order to repair the status quo. One such obstacle is staff turnover. The financial cost is high for the facility and the emotional impact for the facility’s residents is great. In order to decrease staff turnover and increase resident outcomes, causality needs to be examined.

It’s common for seniors who don’t receive the proper care to develop complications that threaten their life. One reason seniors don’t receive proper care is due to inadequate staffing levels. Senior living facilities that constantly understaff their facilities should be avoided. By straining their staff, these facilities reduce the level of care they can provide their residents. Caregivers should observe staffing levels, other residents, and the type of care offered at the facility before making a decision about a particular facility.