White Hats, Black Hats.RICHARD L. PECK It's easy to laugh at the movies for being so simplistic sim·plism n. The tendency to oversimplify an issue or a problem by ignoring complexities or complications. [French simplisme, from simple, simple, from Old French; see simple : The good guys are so very, very good, and the bad guys are so irredeemably evil. In the real world we know that people and situations tend to be more complicated than that. But, lo and behold, in our very own field, we're finding the Hollywood paradigm enacted: the good guy "white hats" and the bad guy "black hats." One of the white hats is featured in this issue--the Glengariff Health Care Center of Glen Cove, New York Glen Cove is a city in Nassau County, New York on the North Shore of Long Island. As of the United States 2000 Census, the city population was 26,622. Part of the early 20th century Gold Coast of the North Shore, Glen Cove has a diverse population. , which won the 2001 OPTIMA Award. Its staff had the initiative and dedication to create, from scratch, an on-site dialysis treatment center, improving the lives of residents and families, and saving money to boot. The project narrowly beat out, incidentally, another white hat, the Long Island Care Center of Flushing, New York, which created a special unit serving the unique needs of Asian residents. Sixteen more white hats contributed OPTIMA offerings, as well; you will read about several of them in coming months. Virtually simultaneous with the sixth annual OPTIMA results issue going to press was the release of a congressional study on resident abuse. The report from Rep. Henry A. Waxman's (D-Calif.) House Committee on Government Reform made for disheartening--and disgusting--reading. It disclosed that about one-third of nursing homes studied had been cited for resident abuse violations. Granted, only about one-fifth of that group had allegedly subjected residents to actual harm. Most citations related to facilities' lack of appropriate systems and procedures for following up on reports of abuse. But that's bad enough. Although the American Health Care Association The American Health Care Association (AHCA) is non-profit federation of affiliated state health organizations, together representing more than 10,000 non-profit and for-profit assisted living, nursing facility, developmentally-disabled, and subacute care providers that care for pointed, correctly, to the industry's staffing miseries and lack of national employee background checking as contributing factors, there is simply no excuse for slovenly slov·en·ly adj. 1. Untidy, as in dress or appearance. 2. Marked by negligence; slipshod. See Synonyms at sloppy. slov management practices exposing vulnerable elderly residents to personal danger. It indicates that long-term care is still emerging from its Dark Age of ageism, resident neglect and governmen t-program-inspired greed. But it is emerging. The field is becoming ever more professional, as the OPTIMA Awards have shown for years. And more and more of Washington's powers that be (Rep. Waxman among them) are showing awareness these days that the industry needs support to continue on that track. Maybe we can't redeem the black hats. But we can sure empower the white hats to take over. Our thanks to this year's OPTIMA Award judges: Ian Cordes President, CoreCare West Palm Beach, Florida West Palm Beach, also known as West Palm, is the most populous city in Palm Beach County, Florida, USA. The city is also the oldest incorporated municipality in South Florida. According to the University of Florida's 2006 estimates, the city had a population of 107,617. Jenean Erickson, RN, LNHA LNHA Licensed Nursing Home Administrator LNHA Louisiana Nursing Home Association LNHA Lamington Natural History Association Survey Management Services Prior Lake, Minnesota Prior Lake is a suburb 20 miles (32 km) southwest of downtown Minneapolis in the U.S. state of Minnesota in Scott County. Surrounding the shores of Lower and Upper Prior Lake, the city lies south of the Minnesota River in an area known as South of the River Daniel W. Farley, PhD, CNHA CNHA Canyonlands Natural History Association (Moab, Utah) CNHA Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement CNHA Canadian Network for Health in the Arts CNHA China National Hardware Association CNHA Certified Nursing Home Administrator President/CEO Glen Wood Park Retirement Village Princeton, West Virginia Princeton is a city in Mercer County, West Virginia, United States. The population was 6,347 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Bluefield WV-VA micropolitan area which has a population of 107,578. It is the county seat of Mercer CountyGR6. Sheldon L. Goldberg President/CEO The Jewish Home & Hospital New York, New York John R. Pratt Director Long-Term Care Management Institute Standish, Maine |
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