Leadership Perceptions and Practices of Hospitality in Senior Care.

Senior care providers are increasingly focused on hospitality to distinguish themselves from competitors. A mixed-methods approach was used to examine perceptions of hospitality from leadership (i.e., administrators of nursing homes and assisted living facilities) and use of hospitality practices across settings and lines of service. Results indicated that hospitality practices readily exist in senior care settings (i.e., nursing homes, assisted living facilities), but may be referred to by names other than hospitality. There also appear to be more similarities than differences in practices across long-term care service lines (i.e., short- and long-stay nursing home residents, assisted living), suggesting that, regardless of provider type, hospitality in senior care is becoming part of the expected culture and cadre of services for residents. Overall, findings suggest hospitality practices are related to providers' census, payer mix, and organizational performance.

Qualitative analyses of nursing home residents' quality of life from multiple stakeholders' perspectives.

PURPOSE: Quality of life has been defined in various ways by nursing home stakeholders over the years. As such, analyzing the levels of agreement or disagreement among these stakeholders to ascertain if staff and leadership align with resident-identified factors for "good" quality of life has become important to include in the literature. This study sought to identify contributory factors to resident quality of life, as well as analyze areas of commonality in qualitative responses. METHODS: Semi-structured interviews were conducted at 46 Midwestern nursing homes, with residents (n = 138), nursing assistants (n = 138), social workers (n = 46), activities directors (n = 46), and administrators (n = 46), on whether each stakeholder felt residents had a good quality of life and the factors contributing to resident quality of life. RESULTS: Overall, the majority of residents perceived their quality of life as "good," though differences were noted in their main contributing factors when compared to staff members' and management's perspectives. Findings also demonstrated that nursing assistants most closely aligned with resident perspectives. CONCLUSIONS: Given the implications of resident satisfaction with quality of life on multiple facets of a nursing home (e.g., survey process, financial reimbursement), it remains ever critical for management to engage residents and to truly listen to resident perspectives to enhance and ensure an optimal quality of life.

THE IMPORTANCE AND VALUE OF PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIP OF NURSING HOME ADMINISTRATORS.

This study examines the association between nursing home administrators (NHAs) professional membership, certification, and fellow status with quality indicators in nursing homes. Membership, certification, and fellow information (representing increasing levels of participation) originated from the American College of Health Care Administrators (ACHCA). ACHCA is a professional association which represents long-term care administrators. The Quality Measures reported on the Nursing Home Compare web-site, and facility information from the On-line Survey Certification of Automated Records (OSCAR) were used. The period of interest was 2010 and a total of 19 quality indicators were examined. Data were analyzed through multivariate analyses using negative binomial regression. The results indicate NHAs who are members of ACHCA are associated with better quality in 6 of the 19 quality indicators examined; ACHCA certified member fellows are associated with better quality in 7 of the 19 quality indicators examined; ACHCA fellows are associated with better quality in 10 of the 19 quality indicators examined; and, ACHCA members (excluding certified, certified fellows, and fellows) are associated with better quality in 13 of the 19 quality indicators examined. These findings support the value of professional membership, as well as voluntary certification or fellow credentialing of NHAs with respect to quality improvement.