November 1 is author's day

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famous authors

Thumbelina “, “The Ugly Duckling “, “The Little Mermaid “, “The Emperor’s New Clothes “, and “The Princess and the Pea all by Hans Christian Anderson

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll

The Last of the Mohicans and The Deerslayer.by James Fenimore Cooper

A Christmas Carol , Oliver Twist , Nicholas Nickleby, A Tale of Two Cities, David Copperfield and Great Expectations all by Charles Dickens<샄Ы> </샄ы>

Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

The Scarlet Letter or The House of the Seven Gables . By Nathaniel Hawthorne

The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling

The Call of the Wild and White Fang by Jack London

Moby Dick by Herman Melville

The Raven, Murders In The Rue Morgue, The Mask Of Red Death, The Fall Of The House Of Usher, The Black Cat, The Pit And The Pendulum and The Tell-Tale Heart. By Edgar Allan Poe

Hamlet , Macbeth , Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer , The Prince and the Pauper, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court , and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. by Mark Twain

Journey to the Centre of the Earth , From the Earth to the Moon , 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea , The Mysterious Island and Around the World in Eighty Days. By Jules Verne

The Invisible Man, The Time Machine, The Island of Doctor Moreau and The War of the Worlds. by H.G. Wells

The Picture of Dorian Gray and The Importance of Being Earnest. By Oscar Wilde

Old Man and the Sea, For Whom the Bell Tolls,
by Ernest Hemingway 

Statue of Liberty

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Benevolant Society On Oct. 28, 1886, the Statue of Liberty, a gift to the United States from the people of France, was officially unveiled to the public by President Grover Cleveland.

It's been over a hundred years since the Statue of Liberty found her home in the harbor of New York and it has become an important part of American culture. But would you believe that Lady Liberty was actually a gift from the French? Read on for more fun facts on the Statue of Liberty.

Building Lady Liberty
The Statue of Liberty was built by French sculptor Auguste Bartholdi, with the help of tons of workers working ten hour days, seven days a week for nine years! The statue was finally finished in 1884 and presented to America on July 4th. It didn't arrive in the United States until many months later though, cuz all 350 individual pieces of the statue had to be packed into 214 crates for the long boat ride from France to New York.

The Statue of Liberty Comes to America
It was on Bedloe Island that the Statue of Liberty was reconstructed in America - the island is now called Liberty Island and is only accessible by ferry. Auguste Bartholdi thought that the New York harbor was the perfect setting for his masterpiece because it was "where people get their first view of the New World." The statue was to be a symbol of welcome for all immigrants coming to America, as well as a universal symbol of freedom.

Statue of Liberty Poem for Kids
Paul Perro, a children's writer, has written a great poem about the Statue of Liberty. You can read it online at History-For-Kids.combirthday on October 28th in honor of the day she was officially accepted by the president of the United States in 1886.

Statue of Liberty Quick Facts

• The Statue of Liberty celebrates her
• Visitors must climb 354 stairs to reach the Statue of Liberty's crown (or take an elevator to a lower lookout point).
• There are 25 windows in Lady Liberty's crown.
• The seven spikes on the Statue of Liberty's crown represent either the seven oceans or the seven continents.
• The statue is made of copper and is now green in color because of oxidation (a chemical reaction between metal and water) from evaporation of the seawater surrounding it.
• The Staue of Liberty weighs 450,000 pounds (204, 100 kilograms).
• The Statue of Liberty has size 879 sandals that are each 25 feet (7.6m) long.

Safety & Quality Pay Off

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Advance for long term care

By Sanjaya Kumar, MD

Safe, high-quality care is an imperative in the evolution of health care. Everyone involved in the care process, from patients to providers to payors agree on this point.

No matter what payment system, billing process or reimbursement policy is implemented, top-notch care is becoming the focus. At the core of a superior care environment is a consistent experience based on best practices and actionable knowledge.

Yet, as the entire industry is rapidly moving from process to outcomes-based metrics, most health care executives and senior staff are still ill equipped to make prudent decisions that help improve care while ensuring their efforts are operationally and fiscally sound.

Today providers make these decisions using a combination of partial data, past experience and trial and error. However, with technological advancement, better methods of decision-making are coming to the forefront. If implemented appropriately, these methods can rapidly change the paradigm of care and the overall performance of the health care enterprise.

One main barrier to this is that performance-enhancing, actionable knowledge resides within silos of data scattered throughout the health care IT environment. Integration of this information through business intelligence systems will enable health care executives to more effectively direct resources to improve patient safety and care based on hard evidence.

Out of Functional Silos, Integration of Clinical and Financial MetricsToday, clinically relevant data can more easily be associated with financial metrics. For example, pressure ulcers have always been considered a drain on resources, but proving this was cumbersome. Software enables patient populations to be easily separated into different cohorts (e.g., various stages of pressure ulcers). Likewise, analytics built into software enables length of stay (LOS) and costs incurred by each group to be analyzed.

The differences between the groups are typically wide, with extended stays and higher costs associated with those who have stage III and IV pressure ulcers. And if these are acquired while in the hospital, Medicare reimbursement is at risk. This of course is in addition to the burden on the patient, many of whom must subsequently be cared for in a rehab or skilled nursing facility.

There are many other examples of how integrated data can clarify and "prove up" where and to what extent investments in patient safety and quality should be allocated. High-risk, problem-prone activities, as well as those that are covered under accreditation standards, can be used as variables in the prioritization process. Research can also support decision-making regarding investment decisions.

An analysis of insurance claims data completed by the consulting firm Milliman for the Schaumburg, IL-based Society of Actuaries (SOA) revealed that five common medical errors accounted for 55 percent of total medical error costs in 2008:

• Pressure ulcers, $3.86 billion ($10,288 total cost per error)
  
• Postoperative infections, $3.66 billion ($14,548 per error)
  
• Mechanical complications of devices, implants, or grafts, $1.13 billion ($18,771 per error)
  
• Postlaminectomy syndrome, $1.12 billion ($9,863 per error)
  
• Hemorrhages complicating a procedure, $960 million (12,272 per error)

Access to cross-domain, interrelated information on demand, with presentation in a context that makes sense based on the decision-maker's roles and responsibilities, is critical to supporting executive decision-making, the launch of improvement goals and the measurement of results. Analytics and reporting support teams as they delve into the processes and systems that need to be revised or redesigned.

In addition, the quality effort must be applied consistently across the entire organization to allow performance improvement to be measured enterprise-wide and across all domains.

Understanding the Technological FundamentalsHealthcare executives have long dealt with large budgets for IT systems, software and hardware. Today's newer technologies will support not just an individual organization, but also the healthcare continuum. To be prepared to review and evaluate these technologies, leaders must be have a basic understanding of the following concepts:

• Cloud computing: this term refers to hosted services over the Internet and is broadly divided into three categories: platform-as-a-service (PaaS), infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS), and software-as-a-service (SaaS). Among many advantages, these services provide access to a wide variety of service options and applications, the latest advanced application developments at a fraction of the cost of in-house development, and hosting on the most advanced platforms with the greatest computing power.

• Integration and its complexities: With cloud computing services and their new, flexible and highly sophisticated technologies, the time-consuming and expensive task of integrating data across multiple tasks becomes considerably easier. This scheme provides match data types for the business owner with a map in place across all data types.

• Role-based application architecture: Operating on the many-to-many principle, this architecture distributes data to many individuals from multiple sources. Each individual develops specific profiles with data access and permissions. To monitor metrics important to their role across clinical, operational and financial domains, users have the ability to customize their environment. This empowers and guides healthcare executives to make the most financially prudent and clinically sound decisions.

Next Steps for a Creating Clinical Business Intelligence EnvironmentNavigating the ever-changing tides of the health care environment and making driving a profitable, high-quality end result is not an easy task. Yet health care organizations have the data required to optimize performance and manage a financially and operationally efficient enterprise. As health care providers look to harness the power of business intelligence there are some key factors that deserve consideration. They include:

1. Start with the end in mind. Setting a concrete vision for how a health care organization plans to implement and use a business intelligence system is critical to its success. Lack of vision will lead to numerous missteps and poor investment decisions.
   
2. Choose the right technology platform. Health care providers need to review their environment and make sure the technology supports the overall vision. Technology for technology's sake will not yield the results desired from a business intelligence and decision support system.
   
3. Drive cultural change. Ultimately, business intelligence solutions are used by staff to make critical decisions. Health care organizations need to ensure their organizations are prepared to take action with this knowledge. Clarity of roles and responsibilities and a supportive environment that encourages responsibility and accountability accelerate adoption and usage of this newfound intelligence.
   
4. Implement checks and balances. Any decision support system needs constant monitoring to validate the use of the system and the decisions being made. Business intelligence is not a magic bullet to solve all your organizational issues. It is a systematic means of making informed decisions that should be monitored in terms of financial and clinical outcomes.
   
5. Expect to fine-tune as you go. Implementing a business intelligence system is the start of a journey. Once the initial implementation takes place, health care providers will see a hundred other areas where business intelligence can be applied. They should expect this and make sure the technology used has the ability adapt and evolve with the needs of the organization.

Health care is at a crossroads. The intersections are safe, high-quality care, efficient operations and financially prudent decisions. Business intelligence, the technology, people and processes deployed will determine the level of organizational success in this endeavor. Every day health care providers wait to get moving is another day where profits and quality care are at risk.

Resources
1. Davis, C. (2010). Medical errors: Pressure ulcers and postop infections 

Singing for the brain

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The Dementia Caregiver's Little Book of Hope [Kindle Edition

Alzheimer's Weekly

Using interviews with a group leader, volunteers, people with dementia and their partners, this film explains what Singing for the Brain is, as well as looking at the supportive and enjoyable atmosphere that makes it such a success.

'Singing for the Brain' is a service provided by Alzheimer's Society in approximately 30 locations, all of which use singing to bring people together in a friendly and stimulating social environment.

Singing is not only an enjoyable activity, it can also provide a way for people with dementia, along with their carers, to express themselves and socialise with others in a fun and supportive group.

For more information on Singing for the Brain, please go tohttp://alzheimers.org.uk/singingforthebrain

Easy basketball trivia

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Eactmonster.com

James Naismith, a teacher at a YMCA in Springfield, Massachusetts, is credited with inventing basketball in 1891.

The first “hoops” were actually just peach baskets and the first backboards were made of wire.

The game became an official Olympic event at the Summer Games in Berlin, Germany in 1936.

Two leagues called the National Basketball League (NBL) and the Basketball Association of America (BAA) merged after the 1948-49 season to become today's National Basketball Association (NBA)

The Boston Celtics have won the most NBA championships (17), including seven straight from 1960 to 1966.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who played 20 seasons in the NBA, holds the record for most points scored in a career with 38,387.

On March 2, 1962, Philadelphia center Wilt Chamberlain scored 100 points in one game against New York. That is the most one player has ever scored in one game.

Current Atlanta Hawks coach Lenny Wilkens has won more basketball games than any other coach.

The American Basketball Association (ABA) was a 10-team rival league to the NBA that began play in the 1967-68 season and folded nine years later after the 1975-76 season. Four current NBA teams – Indiana, Denver, New York, and San Antonio – originated in the ABA.

The NBA instituted the three-pointer before the 1979-80 season, an idea it borrowed from the ABA.

The Chicago Bulls have won all six NBA Finals in which they've appeared.

Michael Jordan, who retired in January 1999 but returned to the league in 2001, has scored more points (5,987) in the playoffs than any other player.

The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame is located in Springfield, Mass.

Prayers lift spirits

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Beyond Blue

The Serenity Prayer by Reinhold Niebuhr
God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference.
Living one day at a time;
Enjoying one moment at a time;
Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace;
Taking, as He did, this sinful world as it is, not as I would have it;
Trusting that He will make all things right if I surrender to His Will;
That I may be reasonably happy in this life
and supremely happy with Him Forever in the next.
Amen.

Prayer by Thomas Merton
My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going.
I do not see the road ahead of me.
I cannot know for certain where it will end.
Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think that I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so.
But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you.
And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing.
I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire.
And I know that if I do this
you will lead me by the right road
though I may know nothing about it.
Therefore will I trust you always
though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death.
I will not fear, for you are ever with me,
and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.


The Third Step Prayer
God, I offer myself to Thee …
to build with me and to do with me as Thou wilt.
Relieve me of the bondage of self,
that I may better do Thy will.
Take away my difficulties,
that victory over them may bear witness to those I would help
of Thy Power, Thy Love, and Thy Way of life.
May I do Thy will always!

The Memorare
Remember O Most gracious Virgin Mary,
that never was it known that anyone who fled to your protection,
implored your help,
or sought your intercession
was left unaided.
Inspired by this confidence,
I fly to you, O Virgin of virgins, my mother.
To you I come;
before you I stand, sinful and sorrowful.
O Mother of the Word Incarnate,
despise not my petitions,
but in your mercy, hear and answer me.
Amen.

Prayer by John Henry Newman
Dear Jesus,
Help me to spread Your fragrance everywhere I go.
Flood my soul with Your spirit and life.
Penetrate and possess my whole being so utterly,
that my life may only be a radiance of Yours.
Shine through me, and be so in me
that every soul I come in contact with may feel Your presence in my soul.
Let them look up and see no longer me,
but only Jesus!
Stay with me and then I shall begin to shine as you shine,
so to shine as to be a light to others;
the light, O Jesus will be all from You;
none of it will be mine;
it will be you, shining on others through me.
Let me thus praise You the way You love best,
by shining on those around me.
Let me preach You without preaching,
not by words but by my example,
by the catching force of the sympathetic influence of what I do,
the evident fullness of the love my heart bears to You.
Amen.
St. Teresa of Avila’s “Bookmark”
Let nothing disturb you.
Let nothing frighten you.
All things are passing.
God alone is changeless
He who has patience wants for nothing
He who has God has all things.
God alone suffices.

Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury,pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek?to be consoled as to console;?to be understood as to understand;?to be loved as to love.?For it is in giving that we receive;?it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;?and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen
image courtesy of wikipedia

Essential Tips for Dementia Caregivers

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Marguerite Manteau-Rao

The journey of dementia is never easy, and it can be made many times worse if family members do not have the internal tools to take care of themselves and their loved ones. Here, based on years of experience in successfully navigating the dementia care landscape, are 13 tips that may save you a lot of grief as a care partner (caregiver) of someone with dementia.
1. Start your day with a few minutes of sitting mindfulness practice, and end the same way.
Mindfulness practice, even for a few minutes a day, can reduce stress. It is also a good way to start your day from a calm, centered place, which is what your loved one needs most from you. If you're not sure how to practice, simply find a quiet place, close your eyes, sit in an alert yet relaxed posture, take a few minutes to check in with yourself and then turn your attention to your breath. Let your body breathe, and simply watch the in and out flow of your breath. You will notice thoughts and sounds coming and going. That is a normal part of the experience. When that happens, simply return to observing the breath. Sit like this for a few minutes.
2. Incorporate mindfulness into your routines: walking, doing chores, caring for loved one, etc.
The same way you were observing your breath while sitting, you can also pay attention to the sensations of your feet on the ground while walking. You can practice while walking alone or with your loved one -- the slower the better. While washing your hands, you can become aware of the sensations of the water running over your hands. While assisting your loved one with dinner, you can focus on the experience of filling up the spoon, bringing it to the person's mouth and their experience of eating. Remember, it is about being present for the experience in the moment, all of it and regardless of what it is. You may do this as often as you want throughout the day.
3. Practice recognizing and being with your emotions, including difficult ones.
When caring for someone with dementia, you are bound to experience many -- and sometimes difficult -- emotions: grief, anger, boredom, tiredness, fear, anxiety, frustration. A very powerful and simple practice is to simply acknowledge the emotion and its physical manifestations in your body. Where am I feeling it? How does it feel? What are the sensations? Also, recognize whether it is pleasant or unpleasant and feel the whole extent of the pleasantness or the unpleasantness. And when you need a break, focus your attention on the breath and watch it come and go. Lastly, identify the thoughts that come with the emotion and see where you are getting caught. Are there changes you can make in the outside world, or do you need to change your attitude?
4. Practice loving kindness for yourself, and also for your loved one.
When the fear or the anger get to be too much, mitigate with some kind energy of your own. Think about someone, something or a place that is very dear to you. Feel the love and kindness emanating from your heart and send it to yourself. While you may not "believe" in it at first, trust that it will make its way through to you eventually. You are working on rewiring your brain, and it takes time! Quietly say something like this to yourself: "May I be at peace, may I be at ease," and repeat a few times, wishing you well. You may then send that same kind energy to your loved one, this time repeating the words, "May you be at peace, may you be at ease," wishing him or her well. This is a simple yet very powerful practice if you do it often.
5. Share your mindfulness practice with at least one other care partner.
When led into a sitting mindfulness practice for the first time, caregivers almost always report feeling incredibly at peace and say they wish they could start their days in that way. Then comes the question of: Why not? That's the thing about mindfulness -- simple in principle, yet very difficult to practice and sustain on one's own. Unless you find at least one other person to practice with or who encourages you to practice every day, chances are you will not keep up with it. It could be another family member, the paid caregiver who is helping you or people in your local caregivers support group.

Why socializing may delay dementia

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The Dementia Caregiver's Little Book of Hope [Kindle Edition]

A recently concluded five-year study of a thousand initially healthy seniors yielded some remarkably upbeat findings.

 Go to church, volunteer for a charity, have lunch with friends – in other words, get out of the house and interact with your neighbors – and you’re 50 percent more likely to ward off signs of dementia. For the most socially active seniors, the ones getting out of the house all the time and doing more for and with others, the statistics are even better. They are 75 percent more likely to fight off mental impairments.

Whether or not the findings of this study stand the test of scrutiny, it is always a good idea to heed what Christ Jesus saw as the two great commandments. The second of the two is perhaps especially applicable here: “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself” (Mark 12:31).
True, neighbor-to-neighbor love might, on the surface, appear as pretty casual – a friendly chat over the back fence, the get-together of a few friends for a barbecue, or a neighborly game of cards. Beneath those superficial niceties, however, is the truth of that second commandment. It goes deeper and involves harnessing thought to a holy purpose, to a healing action.
Living real neighborly love at times pushes an individual beyond his or her comfort zone, while fulfilling that holy purpose and meeting that neighbor’s need. One might, for instance, seek out practical ways to buttress someone’s hope that they are not forgotten, that life has not passed them by, that unhappy events have not drained their life of meaning.
Both the giver and the receiver of second-commandment-impelled actions are blessed. Both parties may even feel as if they’ve reaped a spiritual bonus – that hopeful feeling of having done something good for another. The defeating of old limitations and the winning of new freedoms is furthered.
One characteristic of various mental afflictions is their claim to march on unopposed, as if no power could halt them. Look at that claim closely though, and you realize it is a bid – albeit an unsuccessful one – to break the first commandment. It is a bid to pass itself off as all-powerful. But wait! Just because the carnal mind claims a disease has power does not make it a valid claim.
Look at what Jesus said of the first commandment: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment” (Mark 12:30). There is one God. One ever-active Mind and Life. One power that is pure Spirit, and one creation that is purely spiritual. Your role is to love the one true God. Then the delusion that there are other powers begins to loosen, eventually to fall away entirely.
Consider a few truths that originate in the Mind that is God, and that abide at the core of your being – the truths of your spiritual clarity and focus; of your inerasable vitality and recall; of your God-given capacity for crisp and clear reasoning. These are native to who you truly are as the idea of pure Mind, the expression of unfading Life.
When you are out of the house and socializing with friends, it’s a great time to realize these spiritual truths. When you are in the house and alone, it’s another great time to realize them. Each spiritual truth lets in the light. The right resolve to remain active and alert comes into focus.
Monitor founder Mary Baker Eddy, because of the extraordinary demands on her time, had little opportunity for an active social life, especially during her later years. Yet she remained keenly active, purposeful, and alert all the way through a long and uniquely productive career. (For instance, for several years she gave a free pair of shoes to each needy child in her community.) Her primary work, “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,” has been the cornerstone to the prayers of countless readers, many of whom have sought, and found, freedom from a whole range of mental impairments.
Whether the book is new to you, or you come to it as an old friend, here is a passage to launch you, or launch you anew, on your journey to see healing for yourself, a loved one, or a neighbor. A marginal heading next to the passage announces it’s about “Immortal memory.” The passage itself reads, “If delusion says, ‘I have lost my memory,’ contradict it. No faculty of Mind is lost. In Science, all being is eternal, spiritual, perfect, harmonious in every action. Let the perfect model be present in your thoughts instead of its demoralized opposite. This spiritualization of thought lets in the light, and brings the divine Mind, Life not death, into your consciousness” (Science and Health, p. 407).
With this, the haze retreats. Your God-bestowed capacities come into sharper focus. Healing dawns.
From an editorial in the Christian Science Sentinel.

Residents' rights month and materials

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Theconsumervoice.org

Residents' Rights Month is an annual event designated by the Consumer Voice and is celebrated in October to honor residents living in all long-term care facilities, including nursing homes, sub acute units, assisted living, board and care and retirement communities. It is a time for celebration and recognition offering an opportunity for every facility to focus on and celebrate awareness of dignity, respect and the value of each individual resident. The theme for Residents' Rights Month 2014 is, "Better Staffing: The Key to Better Care" with the goal of encouraging residents and others to be educated about staffing and long-term care.

Residents' Rights

Residents’ Rights are guaranteed by the federal 1987 Nursing Home Reform Law. The law requires nursing homes to “promote and protect the rights of each resident” and places a strong emphasis on individual dignity and self-determination. Nursing homes must meet federal residents' rights requirements if they participate in Medicare or Medicaid. Some states have residents' rights in state law or regulation for nursing homes, licensed assisted living, adult care homes, and other board and care facilities. A person living in a long-term care facility maintains the same rights as an individual in the larger community.
View a Consumer Voice fact sheet on Residents' Rights.
Select on a below link to learn more about Residents' Rights.

• What are Residents' Rights?
• Residents' Rights in Other Languages
• National Residents' Rights Month
• Trainings and Inservices
• Resources
• Ombudsman Best Practices

What are Residents' Rights?

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Residents' Rights Guarantee Quality of Life
The 1987 Nursing Home Reform Law requires each nursing home to care for its residents in a manner that promotes and enhances the quality of life of each resident, ensuring dignity, choice, and self-determination.
All nursing homes are required "to provide services and activities to attain or maintain the highest practicable physical, mental, and psychosocial well-being of each resident in accordance with a written plan of care that… is initially prepared, with participation, to the extent practicable, of the resident, the resident's family, or legal representative." This means a resident should not decline in health or well-being as a result of the way a nursing facility provides care.
The 1987 Nursing Home Reform Law protects the following rights of nursing home residents:
The Right to Be Fully Informed of

• Available services and the charges for each service
• Facility rules and regulations, including a written copy of resident rights
• Address and telephone number of the State Ombudsman and state survey agency
• State survey reports and the nursing home’s plan of correction
• Advance plans of a change in rooms or roommates
• Assistance if a sensory impairment exists
• Residents have a right to receive information in a language they understand (Spanish, Braille, etc.)

Right to Complain

• Present grievances to staff or any other person, without fear of reprisal and with prompt efforts by the facility to resolve those grievances
• To complain to the ombudsman program
• To file a complaint with the state survey and certification agency

Right to Participate in One's Own Care

• Receive adequate and appropriate care
• Be informed of all changes in medical condition
• Participate in their own assessment, care-planning, treatment, and discharge
• Refuse medication and treatment
• Refuse chemical and physical restraints
• Review one's medical record
• Be free from charge for services covered by Medicaid or Medicare

Right to Privacy and Confidentiality

• Private and unrestricted communication with any person of their choice
• During treatment and care of one's personal needs
• Regarding medical, personal, or financial affairs

Rights During Transfers and Discharges

• Remain in the nursing facility unless a transfer or discharge:
• (a) is necessary to meet the resident’s welfare;
• (b) is appropriate because the resident’s health has improved and s/he no longer requires nursing home care;
• (c) is needed to protect the health and safety of other residents or staff;
• (d) is required because the resident has failed, after reasonable notice, to pay the facility charge for an item or service provided at the resident’s request
• Receive thirty-day notice of transfer or discharge which includes the reason, effective date, location to which the resident is transferred or discharged, the right to appeal, and the name, address, and telephone number of the state long-term care ombudsman
• Safe transfer or discharge through sufficient preparation by the nursing home

Right to Dignity, Respect, and Freedom

• To be treated with consideration, respect, and dignity
• To be free from mental and physical abuse, corporal punishment, involuntary seclusion, and physical and chemical restraints
• To self-determination
• Security of possessions

Right to Visits

• By a resident’s personal physician and representatives from the state survey agency and ombudsman programs
• By relatives, friends, and others of the residents' choosing
• By organizations or individuals providing health, social, legal, or other services
• Residents have the right to refuse visitors

Right to Make Independent Choices

• Make personal decisions, such as what to wear and how to spend free time
• Reasonable accommodation of one's needs and preferences
• Choose a physician
• Participate in community activities, both inside and outside the nursing home
• Organize and participate in a Resident Council
• Manage one's own financial affairs

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Residents' Rights in Other Languages

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The Center is pleased offer Residents' Rights in the following languages, English, French, Hindu, Korean (Illinois specific, not federal version) Spanish and Russian (Illinois specific, not federal version). Select on the links below to access each version.

If you have a copy of Residents' Rights in a language not listed here and would like to share it with NORC, e-mail it to ombudcenter@theconsumervoice.org. Thank you!

• English
• French
• Hindu
• Korean (Illinois specific, not federal version)
• Spanish
• Russian (Illinois specific, not federal version)