Ludlowe Center for Health and Rehabilitation
Named Best Nursing Home by U.S. News & World Report
U.S. News & World Report, the global authority in health care rankings, named Ludlowe Center for Health and Rehabilitation as a 2021-2022 “Best Nursing Home” for Short-Term Rehabilitation.
The 12th edition of the U.S. News Best Nursing Homes combines comprehensive information about care, COVID-19 vaccination requirements for residents and staff, flu and pneumonia vaccination rates, and infection control violations listed on the resident safety summary. Individuals can easily conduct customized research for a highly-rated nursing home by location, size and Medicare and Medicaid coverage.
“This is an exceptional achievement for our team,” said Marvin Ostreicher, President of National Health Care Associates, Inc. “Quality is always the ultimate measure of a nursing home’s success and our team works hard to provide outstanding care to our residents and their families. We’re proud of this well-deserved award.”
Ratings draw on data from Nursing Home Compare, a program run by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), the federal agency that sets and enforces standards for nursing homes. For the 2021-22 ratings, U.S. News used a short-term rehabilitation and long-term care rating. The short-term rating aims to provide patients with a clearer view of the quality of care provided by nursing homes to short-stay patients in need of intensive rehabilitation or nursing services before they return home after a surgery, stroke, accident or illness.
“We’re proud to receive this award by U.S. News & World Report,” said Patricia Page, Administrator, Ludlowe Center for Health and Rehabilitation. “Our dedicated team is committed to providing safe, quality care trusted by our patients, residents and their loved ones.”
For a complete listing of the results and centers on the “Best Nursing Homes” list, visit the U.S. News & World Report website link at http://health.usnews.com/best-nursing-homes. To learn more about Ludlowe Center for Health and Rehabilitation, visit www.ludlowecenterhealth.com.
Matters of the Heart: Nicole Orr, MD, Leads
Ludlowe Center’s Cardiac Rehab Program
Ludlowe Center for Health & Rehabilitation, an affiliate center of National Health Care Associates, Inc., announces, Nicole Orr, MD, FACC, as head of its Cardiac Program. In this role, Dr. Orr oversees the care of short- and long-term residents recovering from cardiac surgery or conditions that require extended skilled nursing care after a hospital stay.
The clinically-supervised program takes a multidisciplinary approach to care and rehabilitation including Advanced Cardiovascular Life Support (ACLS) trained and certified nursing staff, a congestive heart failure (CHF) management program, robust physical therapy services up to seven day per week or as ordered, on-site EKG monitoring, 24/7 access to lab and radiology services, cardiac diet and education, and post-discharge assistance and follow-up.
In addition to her role at Ludlowe Center, Dr. Orr serves as an Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Division of Cardiology at Tufts University School of Medicine. She founded and leads Post-Acute Cardiology Care, a cardiology practice dedicated to developing heart failure disease management programs in post-acute care facilities with a high burden of heart failure patients.
“I am excited to join the team at Ludlowe Center,” said Dr. Orr. “I have dedicated my career to the area of post-acute cardiology care with a focus on seniors in need of extensive care and rehabilitation after a hospital stay. The team and I work hand-in-hand with the residents, their families and other providers to get their heart health to where it needs to be.”
An advocate for improving geriatric cardiac care, Dr. Orr has built several heart failure programs for skilled nursing facilities, including one recently granted with Post-Acute Care Heart Failure Center Certification status by the American Heart Association. An active member of the Geriatric Section of the American College of Cardiology, Dr. Orr also speaks nationally about treating geriatric cardiology patients admitted to post-acute care. She has also authored and published several works regarding best practices for post-acute heart failure management.
“We’re pleased to have Dr. Orr lead our program,” said Patricia Page, Administrator, Ludlowe Center. “Her passion for geriatric cardiac patients requiring post-acute care and thoughtful application of goal-directed and person-centered disease management benefits our residents throughout their recovery process, as well as our staff from an educational perspective.”
To learn more about the post-acute Cardiac Program at Ludlowe Center, visit www.ludlowrehab.com.
Ludlowe Center for Health & Rehabilitation Named Vohra Center of Excellence for Wound Management
Ludlowe Center for Health & Rehabilitation has been certified by Vohra Wound Physicians as a Center of Excellence for Wound Management. Only 10% of Vohra’s skilled nursing facility partners have qualified for this annual certification.
Our Center places a top priority on healing and rehabilitating our residents to return them to their homes. We admit patients with chronic or complex wounds because we are equipped to treat them with our specialized wound management program.
We have partnered with Vohra Wound Physicians to bring physician-led bedside wound care to our Center. A Vohra wound physician visits our Center weekly to treat our residents with wound and skin issues. This reduces the need to send our residents out to wound care centers or hospitals.
Our multispecialty team treats all types of wounds including pressure ulcers, venous ulcers, arterial wounds, diabetic neuropathic wounds, post-surgical wounds and others.
Our Center has an interdisciplinary team to care for our residents. The wound physician works with the primary care physicians, physical therapists, staff nurses and other specialists to ensure our residents are receiving excellent wound care.
As long-term facilities continue to provide more specialized services with complex ailments, the presence of a wound physician is an important link in providing superior care.
Ludlowe Center for Health and Rehabilitation Earns 2020 AHCA/NCAL Bronze National Quality Award
Ludlowe Center for Health and Rehabilitation, an affiliate of National Health Care Associates, has been recognized as a 2020 recipient of the Bronze – Commitment to Quality Award by the American Health Care Association and National Center for Assisted Living (AHCA/NCAL).
This distinction recognizes Ludlowe Center for Health and Rehabilitation for developing a foundational pathway towards continuous quality improvement. The Center has taken the initial steps to achieving performance excellence by creating systematic, sustainable, and person-centered care and services.
On receiving the award, Patricia Page, Administrator at Ludlowe Center for Health and Rehabilitation, said, “Team Ludlowe has taken the first step towards achieving the highest standard of quality care. I applaud the entire staff for their commitment to our residents. We will not stop improving.”
The AHCA/NCAL National Quality Award Program is a progressive, three-step process that encourages the continuous learning, development, and execution of integrated quality systems to achieve performance excellence. Each progressive step requires a more detailed and comprehensive demonstration of quality integration and performance. The criteria for each step is based on the Baldrige Performance Excellence Program.
As a recipient of the Bronze – Commitment to Quality Award, Ludlowe Center for Health and Rehabilitation will continue developing approaches and achieving performance levels that meet the Silver – Achievement in Quality Award criteria.
NHCA Sponsors The Essential Race
National Health Care and our affiliate Centers Bethel Health Care, The Cascades Assisted Living, Cambridge Health and Rehabilitation, Ludlowe Center for Health and Rehabilitation and Village Crest Center for Health and Rehabilitation are proud to be a Race Sponsor for The Essential Race.
First Light Home Care has organized a “Virtual Walk/Race” from 9/3/2020 to 9/20/2020.
“The Essential Race will be donating proceeds to support Essential Workers within the Nuvance Health Emergency Departments who have gone through high levels of stress and trauma. From the Nurses who helped their patients say goodbyes to their families over zoom to the Doctors who pushed themselves to the brink of exhaustion working non-stop, Covid has drained many people emotionally as well as physically. The Essential Race will donate funds to help restore the mental health and wellbeing of our Essential Workers.”
All info to register and details can be found on the website: www.theessentialrace.com. To Join our Team and walk or run with us, contact the Admissions Office at our Center.
More about The Essential Race – The Essential Race will offer Runners 5 different options: a 5K Walk, 5K Run, 10K Run, ½ Marathon, and a 1 Mile Swim. The Essential Race will take place over a 17-day period beginning September 3rd and ending Sept 20th. The longer time span to compete provides a larger window so that more people can participate.
Keeping Our Residents Safe and Connected
The COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically impacted the lives of many, ushering fear, loss, and anxiety. Yet, amidst its impact, a light of hope has shined through healthcare heroes everywhere, whose untiring efforts have helped to keep us safe.
Though significantly affected by this pandemic, the nursing home industry and our healthcare heroes remain ever vigilant, employing a number of safety measures to ensure the well-being of those in our care.
Below are some of the measures our industry has taken to keep you or your loved ones safe at skilled nursing care facilities (SNF) and assisted living communities (ALF):
- Skilled nursing facilities and assisted living facilities adopted careful infection prevention and hygiene procedures such as handwashing, cough etiquette, the appropriate wearing of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), environmental cleaning, and disinfecting and reprocessing medical equipment.
- Many skilled nursing facilities and assisted living facilities, adopted technological solutions to communicate with resident families and responsible parties, including virtual visits on their loved one’s health status using apps like facetime and web conference tools.
- In May, all Connecticut nursing homes completed point-prevalence testing on all of its residents. Testing entailed a swab of every patient in the nursing home at that given time. Once results came back, this allowed non-symptomatic positive residents to be identified and placed into the appropriate area of the facilities. Once we could identify those infected in the facility and use the appropriate placement and precautions, getting rid of the virus became much more possible.
- In May, the Department of Public Health (DPH) announced requirements for all nursing homes to make an observation unit for new admissions. All new patients admitted to an SNF are placed into a private room with appropriate precautions and treated as suspected COVID-19 for 14 days, even if they have never had symptoms or a positive test. After the 14 days, the patient deemed “negative” for COVID-19 can be moved to another unit if they remain in the facility long term or go to a unit that is kept for patients that are negative for the virus.
- SNFs continue to designate positive COVID units, COVID negative units, and “unknown” or observation units to prevent further spreading of the virus. Each unit requires staff to follow specific PPE guidance, including the type of facemask, face shields, and gowns used.
- Weekly staff testing was started in June by DPH. DPH assigned several laboratory partners for weekly staff testing of all nursing home and assisted living employees. This weekly testing continues until no resident cases are in the facility, and no employee tests come back positive for two consecutive weeks. If a positive case does get newly confirmed, weekly testing re-starts.
- Technology has helped with facilitating both physician visits to patients but just as important – family visits. As an industry, we have utilized iPads, cell phones, and apps to connect families to their loved ones.
- In May, DPH gave guidance regarding visitation. Patients that are COVID-negative can have social distance window visits or outdoor visits with their family members. COVID-positive patients and patients suspected of possibly having the virus will continue virtual visits with family until they have fully recovered from the virus. Patients under their 14-day observation can do window visits if the placement of their room allows for appropriate access.
- All patients and residents continue to be screened and monitored for symptoms of COVID-19. Any change in condition is documented and reported to the appropriate governing body.
- Staff continues to get in-servicing and training on infection control, the latest DPH, and CDC guidance and monitoring of the situation.
If you or a family member may need the level of care offered by a skilled nursing facility or assisted living that cannot be provided at home, we hope this gives you some comfort on what we are doing to keep you or your loved one as safe as possible. Our goal is always to provide the best care and service to all of our residents, patients and families.
Resources:
If you have any questions specific to some of the Department of Public Health Guidance listed above, you can visit their website at: https://portal.ct.gov/Coronavirus/Nursing-Homes-and-Assisted-Living-Facilities