On January 13, 2021, AARP issued 10 Steps to Reform and Improve Nursing Homes with a subtitle of Expert insights on how the industry should evolve in response to COVID-19. 

“The current system for funding and delivering long-term care services is a national crisis that we have to address,” says Bob Kramer, cofounder and strategic adviser for the National Investment Center for Seniors Housing & Care. But how? The AARP Bulletin spoke with more than three dozen experts. What follows are 10 ways they say America’s long-term care industry can evolve to be healthier and more stable in the short term, and ultimately more inviting and responsive to the people who need to reside there.

Don’t stop reading – we all need to see this as it impacts our industry as well as our communities and the people that live in the community. 

The 10 steps are divided into 3 goals:

• Make Environments Healthier
  • Require more registered nurses
  • Partner with hospitals
  • Improve infection control
  • Reduce isolation
• Reexamine Business Approaches
  • Address the funding
  • Revamp the staffing model
  • Improve oversight and reporting
  • Rethink ownership
• Reshape the Industry
  • Provide more care at home
  • Create smaller nursing homes

Share this report with your team and colleagues.  We are certainly in the throes of the coronavirus pandemic now.  We are vaccinating healthcare workers, LTC staff and residents, seniors and essential workers which is a huge positive step forward.  We’ve experienced A LOT this past year and counting.  As an industry, we know that improvements need to be made.  Let’s be an integral part of that improvement process.