As Governor Gavin Newsom announced on May 4, 2020, California began to ease some of the restrictions in place starting Friday, May 8, 2020, introducing the state to the beginning of Phase 2 of California’s four-stage reopening plan. Reopening without the proper protective bulwarks can have dire ramifications. One crucial…
Life Care Center of Kirkland in Washington, the first long-term care facility in the United States with a wide-scale coronavirus outbreak, was recently charged with a $600,000 fine for deficiencies that enabled the virus’ spread. Additionally, due to the slew of deficiencies, they are at risk of losing their Medicare…
The novel coronavirus, COVID-19, has left unprecedented marks on society, triggering stay-at-home orders, shelter-in-place orders, ceasing all in-office activities for non-essential businesses, implementing social distancing measures, to mention a few. The airborne respiratory disease is highly contagious and unfortunately, fatal to a percentage of its victims. And as novel as…
Many people today use medication unnecessarily. The smallest flu or cold warrants the use of antibacterial medication that often does greater harm to our bodies. We ask our doctors for medications that cure common illnesses without thinking of the effects that these medicines may have on our bodies in the…
The prevalence of chronic wounds located in the lower extremity area is high among older adults. Not only can they be extremely deleterious and pose major health risks, they also increase socioeconomic burden because of the high expenses of wound care, long duration of healing time, increased complication rate and…
Nursing home residents are often vulnerable to health care-associated infections that can significantly increase morbidity and mortality. Unfortunately, not must is known about common practices that can prevent these kinds of infections in this setting. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) mandates that all skilled nursing facilities have…
A recent study exploring the effectiveness of twenty-four-hour reports in infection prevention and control showed that they are essential components. Infections are known to be highly prevalent among nursing home residents and can lead to morbidity and mortality. This fact is unsurprising, considering that residents are constantly clustered in constrained…