While laundry might not be the first thing that comes to mind when thinking about the quality of care at a long term care facility, it does play an important role.

Mention Flint, Mich., to most anyone inside the “rust belt” and the responses could range from “sad and empty” to “crime-ridden and hopeless.” The city that gave birth to General Motors and the United Auto Workers now evokes images of blocks of boarded-up homes, parades of for-sale signs, and abandoned strip malls. Not surprisingly, the statistics behind these images are bleak: double-digit unemployment rates that are higher than the national average, a poverty level of 34 percent (more than twice the national average of 14.3 percent), and a crime rate that ranks among the highest in the nation.

Florida has suffered deeply from the effects of the Great Recession and its aftermath, with once booming housing and construction markets gone bust and even the 12-month-a-year tourism trade unable to prop up an otherwise weak economy that has left nearly 1 million without work.

Doctors are stressed out, according to a recent national survey of U.S. physicians. Conducted by Cejka Search, the survey found that the majority of U.S. physicians are moderately to severely stressed or burned out on an average day, with nearly 63 percent of respondents saying their stress has risen moderately to dramatically in the past three years.

In 2009, Skilled Healthcare, LLC, created a task force to tackle these issues and to further its goal to enhance the value of the facility QAA committee. Task force participants included a wide range of stakeholders—administrators, clinical, and operational consultants. Along the way, further input came from facility medical directors and interdisciplinary team members.

State Medicaid plans across the country are laying the groundwork for introducing managed care into their long term care programs, spurred by federal initiatives to integrate care and funding for the segment of enrollees known as “dual eligibles.” These beneficiaries, who qualify for both Medicaid and Medicare benefits, have become a focal point for savings and other policy reforms due to their high costs and complex medical needs.

People who have not yet retired think retirement will be easier than it actually is, according to a new poll by National Public Radio, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and the Harvard School of Public Health. The poll shows stark differences between what pre-retirees think retirement will be like and what retirees say is actually the case.

Managing this aspect of a business can be easily overlooked, but long term and post-acute care providers can reduce expenditures through an aggressive and effective unemployment cost-control program.

Major uncertainty exists in the seniors housing and investment markets because of reduced Medicare reimbursement for fiscal year 2012, and the possibility for even more when the deficit-cutting congressional Super Committee completes its work, but one leading expert says stakeholders are not panicking, and there is ample opportunity for flexible skilled nursing operators to be successful.