In this week's LTC Connection, we're giving you a "taste" of one of the articles from the second issue of Embrace magazine! If you like what you see, we hope you'll visit www.embracethemagazine.com to subscribe. We're also saluting the ProMed customers who were recently named National Quality Award winners and shining a spotlight on our Personal Hygiene Care category.

We were thrilled to learn that six of our customers have been named AHCA/NCAL National Quality Award recipients! These awards, which are part of the Malcolm Baldridge National Quality Award program, recognize long-term care providers on their journey toward performance excellence. There are three levels of National Quality Awards. The levels and the qualifications for each are: BRONZE - Commitment to Quality (formerly Step I): Applicants begin their quality journey by developing an organizational profile including vision and mission statements, an awareness of their environment and customers' expectations and a demonstration of their ability to improve a process. SILVER - Achievement in Quality (formerly Step II): Applicants demonstrate a level of achievement in their quality journey through good performance outcomes that have evolved from how they embrace the core values and concepts of visionary leadership, focus on the future, resident-focused excellence, management by innovation and focus on results and creating value. GOLD - Excellence in Quality (formerly Step III): Applicants must show superior performance over time that is based on their systematic approaches to leadership, strategic planning, focus on customers, measurement, analysis and knowledge management, workforce focus, process management and results. Gold applicants address the complete Baldridge Criteria for Performance Excellence in Health Care. The ProMed customers who earned these awards are: • Cerenity Senior Care of White Bear Lake, White Bear Lake, MN (Silver) • Nazareth Home, Louisville, KY (Bronze) • Hilltop Nursing and Rehabilitation, Owingsville, KY (Bronze) • Superior Care Home, Paducah, KY (Bronze) • Briody Health Care Facility, Lockport, NY (Bronze) • Ridgewood Care Center, Racine, WI (Bronze) Congratulations to these facilities! We're proud to be your partner in health care! To learn more about the awards program, click here. To view our original blog entry on the National Quality Awards, click here. Everything that has been featured in LTC Connection is archived on ltc.promedsupply.com! Looking for a story from a few issues back? The convenient search feature puts what you're looking for right at your fingertips. The site also has links to Embrace magazine, our blog and our Facebook and Twitter accounts. We also added a link atop every LTC Connection newsletter to make the site easy to access. Building Your Dream Team: How can you hire and keep the right people at your facility? by Laura Kuhn Close your eyes for a second and picture your facility, busy and bustling. Now, take all of the nurses and CNAs out of that picture in your head and watch your facility grind to a halt. Sure, this is an exercise in "make believe," but problems with staffing and turnover are very real. With the number of available nursing jobs set to skyrocket in the next decade and turnover being notoriously high in long-term care, what can your facility do to not only hire the right people for available jobs but keep them once they're part of your team? Millions strong – and growing According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, registered nurses represent the largest healthcare occupation, with a total of more than 2.6 million jobs, about 5 percent of which are in nursing care facilities.1 Hot on their heels are the approximately 1.5 million working nurse's aides, orderlies and attendants. About 41 percent of those individuals work in nursing care facilities.2 Between 2008 and 2018, it's expected that employment for nursing aides, orderlies and attendants will rise by 19 percent, primarily in response to the needs of a growing elderly population.2 The need for registered nurses will also boom, resulting in an estimated 581,500 new jobs between 2008 and 2018. Hundreds of thousands of additional jobs will also be created when experienced nurses leave the workplace.1 Turnover troubles Long-term care staffing problems don't stop at filling available positions. It can also be a battle to keep staff members. According to the American Association of Homes and Services for the Aging (AAHSA), the average national turnover rate for nurses working in aging services is 49 percent.3 As of July 2008, there were more than 19,400 RN vacancies in the long-term care setting.4 It's been estimated that up to 5 percent of a facility's budget can go toward the costs associated with nurse turnover.5 For CNAs, turnover swells to 71 percent. The total national cost of CNA turnover is a staggering $4 billion each year.3 Want to read more? Simply subscribe to Embrace! Subscriptions are available at no charge and signing up is a snap - just visit www.embracethemagazine.com. With the changing face of the long-term care industry, it's also time to change the way you look at delivering quality care. It's time to rely on a skin care program that shows an understanding of the operational, financial and regulatory issues you face on a daily basis. At Professional Medical, we provide a complete line of personal hygiene items to assist you in managing costs, improving outcomes and delivering quality care to meet all of your residents' needs. The Personal Hygiene Care category includes: • Bathing Products for Hair and Body • Soaps and Dispensers • Grooming Accessories • Oral Care Products • Feminine Hygiene Products If you're a registered user on promedsupply.com, you can view items in this category by clicking on Online Catalog and then selecting Personal Hygiene Care. If you're not registered on the site yet, your ProMed Customer Care Professional will be happy to get you set up.