Creative fund-raising for nursing homes. An additional revenue source in tough economic times.

Nursing home administrators and sponsors should look to fund-raising as a way to increase their facilities' revenues. The board should first appoint a development coordinator and a special board to be responsible for the fund-raising program. The nursing home can reach potential contributors by regularly sending printed material to specially selected persons from its mailing list. The staff must know the procedures to follow when someone wants to make a donation (e.g., to whom the check should be made payable). To generate interest and to motivate contributors, the fund-raising board should identify specific needs for which the contributions will be solicited. A computer program can help keep track of to whom acknowledgements must be sent. Options for a fund-raising program include memorial and honor gifts, gifts in kind, grants and special gifts, special events, deferred gifts, educational programs, and membership clubs.

The effects of aging and how they alter care.

Geriatrics, which is still a young medical specialty, is only just beginning to discover how the elderly react to illness and treatment. One of the discoveries is that the elderly do not always respond or show symptoms in the same way as a younger patient. Some basic understanding of the effects of aging on a person can lead to useful strategies in meeting the elderly's needs. A lack of understanding about changes in the elderly's sense organs probably causes the most frustration in the relationship between the elderly patient and the care provider. The ability to see diminishes in approximately 20 percent of the elderly. Approximately one third experience a hearing loss. The elderly have a decreased number of taste buds, especially those affecting sweet and salty tastes. Their ability to perceive pain, pressure, and temperature may decrease as well. The healthcare professional should be aware of the difference in the geriatric data base from that at other life stages and should look for clues that the elderly patient is suffering from diminished senses.

Ministry forges a special bond between a parish and a hospital.

What happens when a parish and a hospital join forces to help meet the physical, social, and spiritual needs of patients? The patients benefit, the hospital benefits, and the parish benefits. A Twining Ministry has expanded patient care at Mercy Hospital in Urbana, Il, where people from St. Matthew's parish in neighboring Champaign volunteer at the hospital. The parish and the hospital teamed up for this effort when Sr. Myra Lambert, SSCM, working in the Pastoral care Department at Mercy, set out to develop closer ties with Catholic parishes in the community. Meanwhile, St. Matthew's was looking for ways parishioners could get involved in a ministry that extended beyond parish boundaries. The hospital chose the 25-bed rehabilitation unit as the focal point of the ministry. St. Matthew's recruited volunteers; Mercy trained them. About 50 volunteers are currently involved in the ongoing program. They assist by helping plan and carry out a variety of activities inside and outside the hospital. They visit patients and provide temporary homes for patients' families; they offer transportation, make phone calls, and do mailings for support groups. They also help with meals, write and read letters, take patients for walks, and transport them to other service areas in the hospital.

Creating a quality assurance program for long-term care.

A system approach to quality assurance in long-term care facilities considers residents' total environment and all aspects of their livers--physical, social, psychological, spiritual, and intellectual. This approach lends a holistic perspective to quality assurance, expanding it from a "numbers game" to an integral part of the facility's philosophy. In developing measurement criteria for a quality assurance program, staff should not overlook systems, procedures, and reporting mechanisms already in place that may provide useful data. Some of these systems include risk management activities, continuing education programs, compliance reports, clinical affiliations, performance reviews, and peer review and administrative audits. Residents and their families are key sources of information about the quality of care. In addition to surveying these groups, long-term care facilities also should involve their resident councils in the quality assurance process.

Assessing retirement needs of women religious.

Religious institutes must plan to meet the financial needs of their retired members and must consider the environment, living arrangements, and quality of life after retirement. Recently ServantCor, a Catholic human services system based in Kankakee, IL, helped two institutes of religious women plan a more comprehensive retirement program by developing a model for them to assess their retirement needs. The model was based on information from eight sources: The institute's current practice. Projected demographic data on number of retired sisters and number of infirmary beds that would be needed over the next two decades. Questionnaires on all the sisters' perceptions of retirement. Interviews with selected sisters concerning issues covered in the questionnaires. Site visits to residences for retired sisters. Geriatric services available in the area where the largest number of retired sisters lived. Retirement programs for other religious institutes in the area. The adequacy of the institute's financial resources. At one institute, focus groups with older laypersons also were held to determine ministry possibilities in the area. Six months after the studies' completion, the provincials of the two institutes said that it helped them in planning to meet the sisters' future infirmary needs. They cited an increased awareness of the need for a holistic approach to retirement. The provincial at one institute said that members' attitude toward the infirmary had improved. At the other institute, they obtained a broader perspective on ministry possibilities to the elderly in the area.