Business View Magazine
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number of HMO plans, Veterans Administration, hospice,
as well as respite placements.
Like many other skilled nursing facilities in the country,
because Regent Care of Reno accepts Medicaid - which is
the combined federal and state-sponsored insurance pro-
gram – change in the healthcare sector can often be dra-
matic because of changes in the program’s rules or for-
mulas. For example, Enad reflects that for over five years,
the facility had a ventilator unit for patients who required
long-term and chronic mechanical ventilation. The facil-
ity suspended those operations last year when Medicaid
changed its guidelines.
Another change that Enad has witnessed in the health-
care landscape over the last several years, is a decrease
in the average age of the patients coming into the skilled
nursing environment. “In our facility we are seeing young-
er and younger patients; many in their thirties, forties, and
fifties, nowadays,” she says. “And they are getting a whole
lot sicker. Patients that should potentially be hospitalized,
are now being transferred to SNFs because there’s been
a change in the paradigm when it comes to a patient’s
criteria for acute stays. Normally, if you asked me ten, or
fifteen years ago, if they’d go to a nursing home, it would
be for rehab, or IVs, or wounds. . .but now it’s everything.”
Of course, that change in patient acuity hasmade it neces-
AT A GLANCE
WHO:
Regent Care Center of Reno
WHAT:
nursing home and skilled nursing facility
WHERE:
Reno, Nevada
WEBSITE
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