Long-Term Care Survey Alert

If you want to entice a resident with advanced Alzheimer's to eat and drink more, try using brightly colored plates and cups. Boston University researchers found that use of the colorful tableware helps people with severe AD to overcome a diminished sensitivity to visual contrast, a condition that often accompanies advanced forms of the mind-stealing disease.

Researchers found that study participants with severe AD increased food intake by 24.6 percent and fluid intake by 83.7 percent when they were switched from white to bright red cups and plates. A switch from white to blue tableware produced about the same increase in food intake (25.1 percent) but only a 29.8 percent increase in fluid consumption.

Pastel dishes did little or nothing to spur the study participants to drink or eat more. Researchers postulate that the bright colors provide "frames" for the food and beverage, so that people with severe AD can better see to eat.



Enlist your bed linens in the tug of war on nosocomial infections  ...  A new invention aims to fight bacteria and viruses by weaving chlorine-based sanitizers into bed linens that nursing homes and hospitals use.

HaloShield is a patented coating that binds chlorine-based sanitizers to nearly any textile or surface, killing microbes on contact without promoting antibiotic resistance. Lab tests show that sheets treated with HaloShield kill 99.9 percent of microbes within minutes.

"It is well documented that soiled linens harbor microorganisms that can be transmitted to others," said Dr. Gang Sun, one of the technology's developers. "In light of the rise of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, the use of HaloShield can be a major development in the battle against microbes that spread infection."  

Medline Industries Inc. licenses HaloShield from Vanson HaloSource. 

For additional information about the technology, go to www.vanson.com/haloshield_index.shtml.



Your long-term care patients are among those at risk for deep vein thrombosis, but a new initiative is taking aim at this potentially deadly condition. The National Quality Forum and Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations this week announced a joint project to develop and standardize performance measures for the prevention and care of DVT and related pulmonary emoblism.

The NQF will oversee the project, and will subcontract with JCAHO to create the DVT performance measures. JCAHO expects to appoint an expert panel this year and begin pilot testing the measures in late 2005.