Characteristics of Management Practices in Long-Term Care

The characteristics of management practices in long-term care involve the methods or techniques centered on planning, organizing and delivering continuous services that address the physical, mental and social needs of clients. This includes elderly, disabled or ill clients, whether they live at home, in the community or at facilities. Facilities may include nursing homes, transitional living facilities and intermediate facilities for developmentally disabled and other services. Assisted living provides residents around-the-clock supervision.

Types of Long-Term Care

• Long-term care comes in a variety of packages, including home care, nursing homes, assisted living and community services. Continuing Care Retirement Communities also have gained in popularity. Home health care usually involves therapists, nurses and hospice care workers for terminally ill clients. Many organizations offer community services focused around transportation services, adult day care, meal programs and other services.

Quality Management System

• Many long-term care administrators model their organization's management practices after the Quality Management System, or QMS. QMS concentrates on the development and communication of a client-centered mission for the long-tern care entity. The organization's strategies and plans focus on needs and expectations as expressed by clients and family members. The objectives are to improve operations by educating staff and to ensure compliance with all regulations.

  It also entails implementing sound financial management and improving clinical services and outcomes. This includes using surveys, collecting and assessing performance data and actively addressing concerns. The methods work to make regular improvements to systems and processes.

Compliance Management

• The federal government and each state have regulations governing the operation of long-term care services and facilities. Management must ensure that the facility and staff meets the state's licensure requirements. Facilities also must meet local building code standards and pass initial and periodic inspections, including safety and health requirements for meeting Medicare and Medicaid certification. Many organizations have internal audit procedures that routinely perform compliance reviews of documents and evaluations of compliance program issues.

Risk Management

• Management practices must incorporate a risk management plan to define, analyze, intervene and assess potential risks, including business, operational and clinical issues. The idea plan centers on the avoidance, prevention and reduction of potential risks. Aspects of the plan may include training and development of staff, conducting facility surveys, protecting confidential client information and performing safety inspections. Management also must purchase the proper insurance products, such as property, malpractice and vehicle insurance, to protect against financial loss.

Nutrition Management

• Long-term care managers must continually appraise the organization's nutrition program. This includes looking at the needs of individual clients, ethnic and cultural choices and proper food preparation. In addition, operations must have sufficient staffing levels to serve clients. Implementing elements of QMS may entail making meal time more of a "dining experience" for residents, such as better presentation of meals or installing larger tables or providing natural lighting in the dining rooms.