The New York Times has an article up about whether aggressive medical care is appropriate for elderly people.

HANOVER, N.H. — Edie Gieg, 85, strides ahead of people half her age and plays a fast-paced game of tennis. But when it comes to health care, she is a champion of “slow medicine,” an approach that encourages […]

Keeping your back healthy is very important. We all know this. And yet, at every long term care facility I have worked at, I have seen aides cheat the systems and policies and rules when it comes to LIFTING. Aides will lift heavy residents by themselves; they will also refuse to use mechanical lifts designed […]

Question:

Q: My 87-year old mother has been a nursing-home resident since she fractured her hip last year. Because she was unable to benefit from rehabilitation, Medicare stopped paying for her care, and she was moved into another room, where she receives skilled care, but she now has a 77-year-old female roommate with an obvious memory […]

Senator Grassley, always an advocate for older people who reside in nursing homes, is demanding an investigation:

U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley is calling for a federal investigation into the way Iowa and other states respond to complaints of poor nursing home care.
“I have an obligation to protect Iowans, and all Americans, from substandard nursing care,” the […]

Manor Care is complaining, already, about the loss of profit in West Virginia.
The nation’s largest nursing home chain wants the state Health Care Authority to give immediate approval to the sale of the company’s seven West Virginia facilities to a private equity firm.
HCR Manor Care executives say the nursing home chain’s shareholders — including the […]

Here’s a reason why we don’t want to see private equity ownership of nursing homes: Using nursing home funds to start up other ventures.

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) _ The state has begun investigating the finances of a nursing home chain owned by a Nashville recording studio executive.
Haven Healthcare, which provides about 1,800 beds in the state, […]