Adding Value to Long-term Care: An Administrator's Guide to Improving Staff Performance, Patient Experience and Financial Health

Sponsored by Elder Clinical Resources, LLCWritten for health care administrators, medical directors, nursing executives, architects, and facility planners, Adding Value to Long-Term Care is a comprehensive resource that provides the tools and information needed to improve the clinical environment for residents, staff, and families; strengthen overall business operations; and secure a facility's financial future. This essential book and companion diskette are filled with a wealth of down-to-earth advice, helpful checklists, and easily reproducible forms-tools for effective business and clinical planning.

Table of Contents:
Foreword by Benyamin Schwarz; Preface; Acknowledgments; The Authors; The Contributors; Part I. The Value System: What Is It and What Is Its Importance to Long-Term Care?; 1. Taking an Integrated Systems Approach to Long-Term Care; 2. A New Organizational Model: The Value System Infrastructure; 3. The Value System Service Atmosphere: How the Multidimensional Treatment Team Approach Can Enhance a Facility; 4. Resolution and Growth at the End of Life; Part II. The Value System: The Tools That Begin the Process; 5. The Environmental Assessment; 6. The Patient Assessment; Part III. The Value System: Putting the Process Into Action; 7. The Importance of Professional Maintenance Plans and Activities for the Long-Term Care Resident; 8. Structuring the Residents' Days: The Creation of Fluid Programming; 9. Staff Training and Motivation; 10. Integrating the Resident's Family; 11. Making the Best of the Current Financial Climate; 12. Implementing The Value System, Then Striving for Continuous Improvement; Appendixes 1: The Value System Environmental Assessment Questionnaire Appendix 2: The Value System Environmental Assessment Explanations; Appendix 3: Scoring and Graphing The Value System Environmental Assessment; Appendix 4: Monitoring and Support Systems for The Value System Environmental Assessment; Appendix 5: Facility Layouts and Designs; Appendix 6: Resources; Appendix 7: Simulation: A Method to Teach Caregivers About Physical Changes Associated with Aging; References; Index.

About the Author :
DIANNE LAZER is the clinical director of Elder Clinical Resources, LLC, (a privately owned consulting firm dedicated to improving the quality of life for long-term care residents) and a speech-language pathologist working in private practice. Elder Clinical Resources, LLC, can be found at www elderclinical.com. TOBI L. SCHWARTZ-CASSELL, a freelance writer, editor, and designer, is the director of publications at Elder Clinical Resources, LLC. She is a former Cable TV talk show host and news anchor and reporter for WWDB-FM in Philadelphia.

Review :
"Adding Value to Long-Term Care is a must read. The Value System offers vast improvement in the clinical care of skilled nursing facility patients, improves staff morale and patient resident satisfaction, and creates a positive marketing advantage." --John C. McMeekin, president and chief executive officer, Crozer-Keystone Health System "How we care for the most ill, infirm, and frail elderly represents the central moral challenge confronting our society. This book contains a straightforward strategy to help meet this challenge through a creative and cost-effective transformation of long-term care. The authors have made a valuable contribution to all of us working in the fields of geriatrics and long-term and palliative care in our efforts to improve the quality of living and dying for the people we serve." --Ira Byock, M.D., author of Dying Well "Lazer and Schwartz-Cassell show a sophisticated grasp of many aspects of long-term care. Adding Value to Long-Term Care is a very impressive, multilevel volume that should be of great usefulness to all professionals concerned about aging in the United States." --Robert M. Goisman, M.D., assistant professor of psychiatry, Harvard Medical School "This book presents a concept that is widely advocated but seldom put into practice. Its major strength lies in the clear, concise, 'how-to-implement' guide." --Sylvia Beatam, Health Care Administrator, Hyde Park Convalescent Home, MA "We recently had the opportunity to review a wonderful book on long-term care, Adding Value to Long-Term Care. If you work in the long-term care setting, you don't want to miss reading this book. It identifies how important instituting a value system is to improve the quality of life for the residents and the care providers. Also included with the book are simple, easy to implement plans, with tools, which are also provided on disk." ----Journal of Nurse Practitioners