HealthStream offers performance learning management solutions to help develop your healthcare staff into leaders and reduce turnover.
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View All ProductsIn all areas of resuscitation, from neonatal to elderly care, clinical deterioration is a risk that can be avoided with the help of HealthStream's training programs.
View All ProductsNurture the skills of your nurses and medical staff to help mold them into effective leaders with development training from HealthStream.
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View All ProductsHealthStream’s learning management system and comprehensive suite of competency management tools empower your healthcare workforce to deliver the best patient care.
View All ProductsThe suite of healthcare onboarding solutions available from HealthStream aids in nurse retention and improved patient outcomes.
View All ProductsGive your healthcare staff the decision support and skills training they need with the online products available from HealthStream.
View All ProductsHealthStream leverages medical professional development in healthcare by providing staff training programs
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View All ProductsMitigate risk and elevate your quality of care. Improving both clinical and business outcomes starts with a smarter, more integrated approach to regulatory training, continuing education and quality management.
Learn MoreThe long-term care industry is struggling to deal with a variety of issues. Some such as preventing falls and ensuring emergency preparedness have been concerns for these facilities for quite some time; others such as new regulatory oversight and handling the COVID-19 pandemic are new to the mix. The result is that industry leaders are faced with a multitude of new challenges to manage simultaneously. Needless to say, grappling with the pandemic by itself would be more than all-consuming. When we overlay all of these other elements on top of COVID-19, we find many in this industry overwhelmed by the scope and variety of the issues at hand. This article is Part 2 of our attempt to look more closely at some of the serious concerns of organizations across the continuum of care.
The compliance burden for long-term care organizations is significant. In an effort to protect every nursing home resident, the federal government requires that each nursing facility comply with regulations embodied in the Requirements of Participation (RoPs) to receive Medicare or Medicaid payment for services. States are required to conduct on-site surveys in nursing homes to ensure provider compliance with those regulations. In 2019, CMS announced its plan to strengthen “the system it uses to hold inspectors accountable under the State Performance Standards System (SPSS) for examining compliance with federal regulations by skilled nursing facilities (SNFs)” (Connole, 2019). As part of this effort, “State Survey Agencies (SSAs), which inspect SNFs on a regular basis, will see changes in how the agency oversees their work, including through updated SPSS assessment tools and a more rigorous and rapid analysis of SSA performance to ensure inspections are timely and accurate” (Connole, 2019). The focus of CMS oversight appears to be timely and consistent inspections, ensuring patient safety, and the consistent application of citations and fines (Connole, 2019).
This area experiences the back and forth pull between the welfare and interests of long-term care recipients and the organizations themselves. Their adherence with requirements requires resources and a commitment of time that may hamper the ability to provide care. One swing of the pendulum occurred with the Obama Administration’s “2016 rule [that] considerably expanded requirements in several key areas to facilitate person-centered care, care planning, infection control, and quality improvement activities” (Stevenson, 2018). During the tenure of the Trump Administration however, there appears to be some degree of an about-face when it comes to oversight of the long-term care industry. There is clear indication that a middle road may be a better course when it comes to compliance. Industry groups like AHCA have “pressed for a paradigm shift in nursing home oversight efforts, seeking a collaborative—as opposed to adversarial—approach in which providers and regulators work together to achieve better resident outcomes” (Stevenson, 2018). How that works in reality is anyone’s guess. Advocates for residents appear to believe that more is better when it comes to regulation, but have “lamented the fact that the new standards did not also include comprehensive staffing requirements and have previously pointed to uneven and lax enforcement of existing standards as a key barrier to quality nursing home care” (Stevenson, 2018). With the long-term care industry preoccupied by the threat of COVID-19 and its regulators thinking mostly about infection control and prevention, bigger issues of compliance are going to take a back seat for some time to come.
This blog post continues a series based on our article, Top Issues Across the Care Continuum - Part Two, which looks more closely at some of the serious concerns of healthcare organizations across the care continuum. An earlier blog post series was based on our article Top Issues Across the Care Continuum – Part One. Subsequent challenges to be examined during this blog post series include:
There is a long list of challenges for providers across the care continuum, outside of acute care. For example, with consistent wage pressures, shifting compliance regulations, and rising acuity levels among resident populations, the skilled nursing and LTC workforce is feeling more pressure than ever before. HealthStream works with organizations throughout non-acute care to address these challenges, from keeping pace with regulatory requirements to engaging and developing competent staff who can satisfy the demands of increased patient complexity. By partnering with HealthStream, organizations are equipped to seamlessly manage the pressures of surveyor visits, while remaining focused on high-quality patient and resident care. Learn more about HealthStream solutions for non-acute care organizations.
HealthStream’s learning management system and comprehensive suite of competency management tools empower your healthcare workforce to deliver the best patient care.
View All Learning & PerformanceHealthStream offers performance learning management solutions to help develop your healthcare staff into leaders and reduce turnover.
View All ProductsHealthStream works with healthcare organizations to create engaging and high-quality training videos for your staff and management.
View All ProductsImprove care quality and save money by making informed decisions about your healthcare facility and staff with HealthStream's reporting analytics solution.
View All ProductsHealthStream's proven methods for the improvement and overall engagement of your healthcare staff foster a positive workplace and increase retention rates.
View All ProductsWhen you enact HealthStream's quality compliance solutions, you can do so with the confidence your healthcare organization will meet all standards of care.
View All Quality & ComplianceBe confident in your staff’s ability to reduce risk by providing compliance training that changes behavior.
View All ProductsDevelop next-level people for next-level care by prioritizing quality and safety improvements.
View All ProductsStandardize policy and procedure management with an automated, customized, and centralized system.
View All ProductsEstablish a culture of belonging with education supporting DEI, wellness, engagement, and leadership development.
View All ProductsHealthStream offers professional training and education on how to best optimize your reimbursement process within your healthcare organization.
View All ReimbursementStreamline the revenue cycle management process and protect your bottom line with expert-backed education.
View All ProductsLearn about our advanced resuscitation training solutions. Our solutions are designed to help improve patient outcomes.
View All ResuscitationIn all areas of resuscitation, from neonatal to elderly care, clinical deterioration is a risk that can be avoided with the help of HealthStream's training programs.
View All ProductsNurture the skills of your nurses and medical staff to help mold them into effective leaders with development training from HealthStream.
View All ProductsExpand the decision-making skills and effectiveness of your healthcare workforce with HealthStream's clinical development programs and services.
View All Clinical DevelopmentMake sure your clinicians have the support they need to provide competent care with clinical competency training and development from HealthStream.
View All ProductsHealthStream’s learning management system and comprehensive suite of competency management tools empower your healthcare workforce to deliver the best patient care.
View All ProductsThe suite of healthcare onboarding solutions available from HealthStream aids in nurse retention and improved patient outcomes.
View All ProductsGive your healthcare staff the decision support and skills training they need with the online products available from HealthStream.
View All ProductsHealthStream leverages medical professional development in healthcare by providing staff training programs
View All ProductsMake sure your healthcare staff can schedule out appointments and work schedules with ease using HealthStream's line of software solutions.
View All SchedulingHealthcare workforce management is essential. We provide advanced scheduling solutions for organizations to solve issues such as nurse retention
View All ProductsComprehensive, industry-leading provider onboarding and credentialing software that validate health outcomes and support provider assessment.
View All CredentialingOur affordable CVO credentialing services establish patient safety by enabling primary source verification for your healthcare organization.
View All ProductsIntegrate with Epic to validate and add new providers directly to your provider master file.
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