ANSWER THE FOLLOWING DISCUSSION ESSAY. USE APA FOR IN-TEXT AND REFERENCES

1. List and describe 3 common themes you detected throughout the history of long term care in our country. Why do you think these themes prevailed, and why would it be important for us to keep these in mind as we move forward in the long term care industry today? Please be thorough and detailed with your response.

READ THE PASSAGE BELOW AND ANSWER THE QUESTIONS HIGHLIGTED

2. Annual inspection surveys are a necessary part of the long term care landscape, and they bring with them a great deal of stress, require immense preparation, and have far-reaching implications. A team of 3-6 individuals enters the building and spends 2-5 days critically assessing every aspect of the facility's operations. Everything from medication administration logs to social service records to dietary logs to resident interviews are subject to scrutiny during the annual inspection. Facilities start preparing for the survey as soon as the team leaves and doesn't stop until they walk back through the door 9-16 months later.

As an administrator of a long term care facility, or any member of the staff, you have the incredible privilege and responsibility of caring for a very vulnerable population of individuals. It's important to balance this responsibility with the frustration that comes with being a part of the annual survey. It's easy to feel like the inspection team is being unreasonable and is intentionally looking for issues to issue a deficiency for...and let's be honest, they are. But it's nothing personal; they're trying to enforce the safeguards in place that are intended to keep long term care facilities a safe and healthy place for residents to live. Without these annual inspections, the temptation to cut corners in order to save resources, time, effort, and ultimately money would be too much for most corporations to overcome. Thus, it's important to have an entity whose sole purpose is to keep facilities accountable to the commitments they make to residents and their families to provide a suitable living environment for those living in their communities.

That being said, it's important to view the annual inspection through two different lenses: As a partner in the business, and as a human helper.

The partner in the business keeps the company's interests in mind during the survey, and often considers things such as budgets, staffing ratios, fulfilling a job description to the best of one's ability, achieving the mission statement of the community, working as part of a team, etc. The human helper considers the experience of the resident and their family members; they view each resident as an extension of their own family and advocate for their health, well being, and rights. The human helper has chosen to work in a long term care community because they are drawn to helping those in need, thus, they keep the resident's interests in mind during the survey.

Imagine that the long term care facility you are the administrator for (so, the big boss!) just completed their annual survey. Your facility received three deficiencies on the survey: A used (empty) urinal was found on a bedside table in a resident's room, the light in one of the illuminated "Exit" signs above a door was burned out, and a resident's morning eggs were found to be outside of the acceptable temperature range (this resident has requested their eggs be cooked "over easy"). The first two infractions are easily remedied and not considered major deficiencies, but the food related infraction is considered an immediate jeopardy tag and must be handled immediately, in addition to coming with a $10,000 per day fine for every day in which your facility is out of compliance.

Please address these deficiencies, from both a business partner perspective as well as a human helper perspective. Your response should have two parts: How each orientation would address the issue, and the reasoning behind it. For example. the business partner would put certain steps in place to ameliorate each issue (provide a detailed explanation of what these 3 solutions would be), and why they would go about it that way. The human helper would acknowledge the importance of all 3 deficiencies from a position that advocates for the resident (EG, it's important to have well-lit exit signs in case of an emergency...etc).

3. Discuss the different accrediting agencies. Include their names as well as a summary of their role in the long term care industry. Then provide your opinion re: pros and cons of accrediting agencies.