Assisted Living Symposium Recap
Did you miss last month’s Assisted Living Symposium? Check out this recap of the takeaways and advice from the day’s speakers from how to take advantage of your NCAL membership, to efforts underway at DSS to bring consistency across regions, to the importance of relationships in delivering excellent customer service, and to advice on implementing infection prevention measures.
Scott Tittle, NCAL Executive Director, kicked off the symposium by sharing details on how you can take advantage of your NCAL membership. He encouraged members to join an NCAL committee and attend NCAL conferences and events to weigh in on issues affecting the sector. He noted that NCAL’s main goals are to maintain regulation of ALFs at the state level, promote quality and to get more AL providers engaged politically.
Tittle explained that NCAL can meet these goals by being a political lobbying powerhouse and by offering policy solutions to decision makers.
Tittle’s key takeaway for members was to work to show improved quality and outcomes. Members can use LTC Trend Tracker to measure and analyze their progress. He also said that providers shouldn’t shy away from identifying which providers in your market are participating in innovation models and to look for new opportunities to align with new care delivery and payment models.
Tara Davis-Ragland, Director for Adult Licensing Programs, and Missy Currier, Associate Director-Adult Licensing Programs, at the Department of Social Services (DSS) emphasized their efforts to improve communications among the agency and providers, as well as their efforts to improve consistency across the regions.
They also offered the following advice to help you address questions or concerns you may have:
- Stay in touch with your licensing administrators. Contact information for each region can be found here .
- If you need an allowable variance, which are most commonly requested to allow an individual to sleep in a recliner, or are related to room size, submit your request to your licensing administrator. Those requests are then forwarded to Davis-Ragland. She regularly reviews requests and issues decisions.
- Familiarize yourself with the General Procedures and Information for Licensure and related Technical Assistance.
Jeff Ukrop reminded the audience about the importance of relationships and kindness in delivering excellent customer service. He advised attendees to take simple, practical actions to enhance the environment for your team and your residents including:
- greeting each person with a smile and hello;
- assisting with simple, needed things;
- giving each person your full attention;
- expressing gratefulness; and
- personalizing your interactions.
Mary Chiles, Sybil Parker, and April Payne offered practical advice as part of their “Make Your Intention Prevention” presentation. Prevention and control of infections requires having an organized program of standards for staff to follow based upon current standards of practice. Routine surveillance of illness among residents and staff gives valuable insight to what health problems may be occurring in your facility, and provides a baseline of the normal level of disease activity. Tracking changes over time and noticing when disease activity is increasing helps to ensure that infection control measures are put in place to prevent further illnesses.
Two great resources to help you develop your infection prevention and control program are: