Valued Voice

LeadingAge, the national organization representing nonprofit nursing homes and other aging services providers, has received a $1.2 million grant aimed at helping nursing homes meet several quality, staffing and safety goals.
 
Awarded by the John A. Hartford Foundation, the grant will support activities such as identifying the most immediately actionable recommendations from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) report “The National Imperative to Improve Nursing Home Quality: Honoring Our Commitment to Residents, Families, and Staff,” and devising strategies to bring them to fruition. NASEM’s recommendations include strengthening the nursing home workforce, improving the sector’s emergency preparedness, and increasing the transparency and accountability of nursing homes’ finances, operations and ownership. 
 
WHA President and CEO Eric Borgerding noted the need for prompt action by the nursing home industry. “The pandemic underscored the interconnectedness between acute and post-acute care,” said Borgerding. “Acute care providers and their patients need to have confidence that the post-acute care sector is a functioning part of the care continuum, which they say they are. We have seen that when that sector falters, hospital discharges are delayed, which, in turn, can delay access to crucial acute and post-acute care services for patients who need hospital care.”