A Long-Term Care Leader's Guide to High Performance

“Essential reading for all current and future leaders in long-term care. The authors are outstanding in this field, and provide valuable insight.”

—Nicholas G. Castle, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Health Policy & Management, University of Pittsburgh

“A really good book for anyone who wants the ‘secret sauce’ that makes great nursing centers tick.”

—J. Mark Traylor, President & CEO, Traylor-Porter Healthcare


“This insightfully written book will inspire, empower, and teach leaders in long-term care the skills needed to build relationship-rich communities.”

—Kelly Papa, M.S.N., R.N., Corporate Director of Learning, Masonicare, and author of Effective Nurse Leadership: Transforming Long-Term Care

From the authors of the award-winning Meeting the Leadership Challenge in Long-Term Care, this book provides a blueprint for success in today’s performance-based healthcare system. It presents a tested approach to delivering optimal care to each resident using a proven, coordinated bundle of key practices that include:

• Leadership that brings out the best in staff

• A communication infrastructure to support teamwork throughout an organization

• A high-involvement performance improvement process that delivers quality person-centered care and prevents avoidable declines

This practical resource takes long-term care leaders through the critical steps to achieve staff stability, strengthen coordination of care, and maintain the highest practicable well-being for each resident. It demonstrates how engaging staff in continuous quality improvement produces consistently high-quality care. Whether care communities are excelling or struggling, leaders can benefit from these performance-improving practices. Filled with candid, impactful personal accounts about implementing quality improvement in nursing homes, A Long-Term Care Leader’s Guide reveals precisely how leaders and their staff can do better, together.


Downloadable, how-to guides include:

• Three Steps to Transforming the Medication Pass: Individualizing Care and Managing Workflow

• Rethinking the Use of Position-Change Alarms

• Eliminating Off-Label Use of Antipsychotics: A 10-Step Guide for Nursing Homes

• MUSIC & MEMORY℠: Implementation Steps to Maximize Benefits: A Nursing Home Leader’s Guide

• Communication Infrastructure Self-Assessment