Susan Misiorski

PHI’s Director of Organizational Culture Change, Susan Misiorski, recently participated in a groundbreaking expert panel to discuss the nurse’s role in culture change.

Leaders from the nation’s leading long-term care, aging, and nursing organizations gathered in New York City in late October at the invitation of the Hartford Institute for Geriatric Nursing and NYU College of Nursing in collaboration with the Coalition of Geriatric Nursing Organizations (CGNO) and the Pioneer Network, a national organization whose purpose is to serve and advance the culture change movement.

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Wall Street Journal's Rundown of LTC Cuts

Health care stakeholders hoped this week the lame-duck session of Congress would examine a stimulus package that includes an increase to the federal medical assistance percentage (FMAP), the federal matching funds that states receive to fund their Medicaid programs.

Many states, such as New York, are threatening to cut Medicaid to make up for budget shortfalls.

According to a recent Wall Street Journal story, at least 15 states, including Alabama, Virginia and Massachusetts, are targeting funding for programs that allow low-income direct-care consumers to receive personal care in their own homes.

The story says the cutbacks are exacerbating the already long waiting lists for home-care support services in many states. With forced reductions due to state budget shortfalls, the low-income elderly and disabled may be forced into nursing homes.

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This is the second in a series examining how state budget cuts are affecting long-term care across America.

New York lawmakers took no action in Tuesday’s emergency state legislative session on budget cuts proposed by Gov. David Paterson. The cutting of state and matching federal funds could have meant over $300 million in multiyear reductions to home care. Continue Reading

Injured vet Tammy Duckworth

We’ve long been warned how unprepared this country is for the number of young men and women who will return home from the Iraq War with mental and physical disabilities.

American military casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan have exceeded 28,000. Statistics show that 80 percent of the wounded are in the 18-30 age range and face an entire lifetime of recovery, adding to an already strained long-term care system that lacks a stable, well-trained workforce. Continue Reading

Pioneer Network, a national organization leading the movement for radical change in the culture of long-term care, is launching the Small House Online Networking Initiative to bring together key stakeholders to explore the idea of community-based “small houses” for older adults.

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