Omaha, NE (PRWEB) January 24, 2012

As part of its ongoing series of webinars on hot topics in the bioethics field, Creighton University will host a complimentary webinar titled “No Place for Dying: Hospitals and the Ideology of Rescue.” The webinar will be presented by Helen Stanton Chapple, PhD, RN, MA, CT, a Creighton faculty member who teaches in the online Master of Science in Health Care Ethics program. Chapple is also a past president of the Association for Death Education and Counseling (ADEC) and current chair of the ADEC Credentialing Council.

Chapple will discuss the idea that many end-of-life dilemmas in the United States are a result of conflicts in American ideology rather than a question of ethics. In addition, the proliferation of advanced technology, the respect for choice, and the need to provide equal opportunity for death avoidance has led to a “rescue first, ask questions later” mentality. Yet often there comes a point where clinicians must work to limit suffering and prepare for death. In her research on treatment for the dying, Chapple discovered that clinicians turned to a “ritual of intensification” that allowed seriously ill patients to be moved from “rescuable” to “non-rescuable” status. This process helped medical professionals to navigate potential conflicts and guilt.

“The ritual preserves belief in the project of medicine,” said Chapple. “Clinicians use ritual to separate the living from the dying, and ultimately the dying from ourselves.”

Date, time, and registration information for the webinar are as follows:

TITLE: “No Place for Dying: Hospitals and the Ideology of Rescue.”

DATE: Monday, February 27, 2012

TIME: 6:30 PM CST

Click here to register

The webinar series is designed to inform medical professionals and others who deal with ethical issues in health care about trends and ideas in the field, as well as to promote Creighton’s Master of Science in Health Care Ethics program. Offered in the convenient online format, the online program pulls from such diverse areas as history, culture, philosophy, politics, economics, and law to explore the meaning, history, context, and implications of bioethics. With courses in Health Policy, the Law and Health Care Ethics, Social & Cultural Contexts of Health Care, Theories of Justice, and Public Heath Ethics, students build their awareness and understanding of the meaning, impact, and practical applications of ethics in the real world. Offered through Creighton’s Center for Health Policy and Ethics (CHPE), the program is built upon the University’s core Catholic and Jesuit values of conscience, compassion, and concern for poor and marginalized groups and individuals.

To learn more about upcoming events at Creighton, go to the Upcoming Events page. To learn more about the webinar series, contact Allison Anderson at the phone number or email provided.

About Creighton University

Creighton University, a Catholic, Jesuit institution located in Omaha, Neb., enrolls more than 4,200 undergraduate and 3,500 professional school and graduate students. Nationally recognized for providing a balanced educational experience, the University offers a rigorous academic agenda with a broad range of disciplines, providing undergraduate, graduate and professional degree programs that emphasize educating the whole person: academically, socially and spiritually. Creighton has been a top-ranked Midwestern university in the college edition of US News & World Report magazine for more than 20 years. For more information, visit our website at http://www.creighton.edu.

medicalnewstoday.com January 17, 2012

Yale School of Medicine researchers have found that the likelihood of becoming disabled with age increases with the following factors: having a chronic condition or cognitive impairment; low physical activity; slower gross motor coordination; having poor lower-extremity function; and being hospitalized. Women are also more likely than men to become disabled in their later years.

Based on 12 years of data, the findings are published in the Jan.17 issue of Annals of Internal Medicine by a research team led by Thomas Gill, M.D., the Humana Foundation Professor of Geriatric Medicine and professor of medicine, epidemiology, and public health at Yale School of Medicine.

With age, many people can no longer walk short distances or drive a car, and those with long-term loss of mobility have difficulty regaining independence.

“Losing the ability to walk independently not only leads to a poorer overall quality of life, but prolonged disability leads to higher rates of illness, death, depression and social isolation,” said Gill, who followed a group of 641 people aged 70 or older who could walk a quarter mile unassisted or who were active drivers at the start of the study. All participants could perform essential activities of daily living, such as bathing and dressing.

Gill and his team assessed the participants for changes in potential disability risk factors every 18 months between 1998 and 2008. They also assessed the participants’ mobility each month. Those who said they needed help from another person to walk a quarter mile were considered to be walking disabled. Those who said that they had not driven a car during the past month were considered driving disabled.

On a monthly basis, the research team also assessed the participants’ exposure to potential causes of disability, including illnesses or injuries leading to hospitalization and restricted activity, which increased the likelihood of long-term disability by 6-fold.

The team found that multiple risk factors, together with subsequent illness and injury leading to hospitalization and restricted activity, are associated with an increased likelihood of developing long-term walking and driving disability. The team considered a disability to be long term if it persisted for at least six months.

“We’ve learned that targeted strategies are needed to prevent disability among older people living independently in the community,” said Gill.

Alyssa Gerace | December 14, 2011 | Senior Housing News

When looking back on 2011, senior housing industry professionals agree that the billions of dollars worth of real estate investment trust (REIT) activity played an integral role in shaping today’s market. But some say that going forward into 2012, healthcare reform will be a key influence in the industry, and others point out the changing roles of assisted living, independent living, and skilled nursing, as providers see acuity rise across the spectrum of care.

Here’s a rundown of notable developments and what they might mean heading into the new year:

Market Consolidation: The Year of the REIT

Real estate investment trusts (REITs) continued their power play from the second half of 2010 well into 2011, with M&A activity reaching a fever pitch in the second quarter, featuring deals such as Ventas REIT’s $7.4 billion acquisition of Nationwide Health Properties and $3.1 billion acquisition of Atria Assisted Living’s real estate; HCP REIT’s $6.1 billion sale-leaseback of more than 300 HCR Manorcare properties; and Health Care REIT’s $2.4 billion sale-leaseback of Genesis Healthcare.

“The biggest surprise was how big of an M&A year 2011 turned out to be,” says Nick Gesue, senior vice president of operations and underwriting at Lancaster Pollard, a healthcare, senior housing, and affordable housing financier headquartered in Columbus, Ohio.

Apart from REITs, some investment brokers say there’s also been strong and steady demand for one, two, or three-property portfolios.

“We’ve seen a very large appetite for these types of properties,” said Grant Kief, president of Senior Living Investment Brokerage, Inc., based in Glen Ellyn, Ill. “I see a continued stream of facilities coming for sale at aggressive pricing; it’s a very active market right now. I don’t see it slowing down.”

Rising Acuity and Expanding Services

Providers have seen rising acuity across the continuum of care, from independent living, to assisted living, to skilled nursing, and it’s forced them to expand their services to keep up with the trend.

“With independent living, it’s morphed more into assisted living than ever before. It’s a pretty unusual and quickening trend,” says Aaron D’Costa, chief business development officer of Des Plaines, Ill.-based Pathway Senior Living.

A lot of this points back to troubled economic conditions, with seniors wanting to go into the least costly setting where they can then choose to get “unbundled” assisted living services through third parties such as home health care companies, D’Costa says.

The trend is further impacted by operators seeking to pad margins eroded by lower occupancy; operators are now more willing to provide services and retain residents longer than before in order to maintain occupancy rates.

With one provider referring to some skilled nursing facilities as functioning like “mini hospitals,” the rising acuity trend is clear across the spectrum of senior care, including assisted living.

“Assisted living has evolved from an environment that was more residential than medical,” says D’Costa. “It forces the conversation about having assisted living being in the continuum of the medical field, and this will continue into 2012.”

Changing Roles & Demographics in Senior Living Communities

Higher acuity levels are also shifting the demographics of those who move into different types of facilities.

With the average age for an independent living resident now in the mid-80s, and assisted living in the late 80s, the senior housing scene is changing. Younger seniors in their mid-70s to 80s who may have gone to an independent living community in the past are now choosing to either put off entering senior housing, or to instead go to “active adult” communities, says Margaret Wylde, president and CEO of ProMatura, a market research company based in Oxford, Miss. and London, UK.

Independent living, in particular, is undergoing a substantial transition as its residents begin to look more and more like those formerly found in assisted living.

Going forward into 2012, many companies will have an increased awareness of marketing and sales, says Wylde, and some communities will start transitioning toward a more natural, less programmed product offering, although it’s a long-term process.

“We are seeing active adult communities rattling the cage quite a bit,” she says. “A lot depends on the economy, but we’re seeing more of that product emerge.”

Medicare & Medicaid Funding’s Impact on the Industry

In 2011, the health care industry was rocked by adjustments to government entitlement programs, most noticeably the 11.1% reduction in Medicare reimbursement rates to skilled nursing facilities, which went into effect Oct. 1. The impact of these cuts and general reductions to state Medicaid funding will continue to play out.

“Medicaid and Medicare changes will have the biggest impact in 2011 going into 2012,” D’Costa told SHN.

With about 70% of nursing home residents relying on Medicaid to pay for their care, according to data from the American Health Care Association (AHCA), most Medicaid directors are feeling the pinch as the federal debt crisis places a heavier emphasis on state budgets.

The Medicare cuts to reimbursement rates only directly impacted nursing homes, but it’s affecting acuity levels in assisted living and independent living as well, says D’Costa, as people may not be able to afford skilled nursing, and slots for Medicaid residents dwindle.

The cuts have also forced skilled nursing operators to trim down already slim margins and maintain investor confidence. And although Medicaid is exempt from the sequestration triggered by the “Supercomittee’s” failure to reach a deficit agreement, Medicare is not, and faces a further 2% cut.

Written by Alyssa Gerace