Cedar Crest Assisted Living by Erickson Senior Living
Overview
Cedar Crest Assisted Living by Erickson Senior Living is a non-profit organization offering retirement care plans for individuals above 62 years. The organization is located in Northern New Jersey, Pompton Plains, NJ 07444,and it assists its residents in living life to the fullest by fitting amenities like a pool and fitness center to enable them to stay active. The organization provides maintenance-free apartments packed with healthy benefits like an on-campus medical facility with full-time doctors. Cedar Crest has 21,037 residents, of which 49.03% are males and 50.97% are females (nd-b). The core values guiding Cedar Crest are rapport, valuing diversity, collaboration, integrity, and accountability. The organization is managed by Erickson Senior Living, which constantly promotes a culture of diversity, inclusion, and belongingness among residents. Besides, the organization is supported by National Senior Communities. Inc (NSC) which represents the financial needs of the residents to ensure the best programs and services are provided to offer the best value.
Types of Care Provided
The organization has different amenities which enable it to offer various types of care. The amenities include a fitness center, pool, and restaurants near the apartments. The proximity of these amenities removes the worry of bad weather impacts on residents’ lives. The place also has signature dining like Fireside restaurant, The Oak Room, and the Mountainside Café, which provide residents with delicious, chef-prepared specialists. Clubs and classes led by residents are also available to provide activities like watercolor classes, TV production classes, pickle balls, and Cedar Crest Chorale. The organization also offers free maintenance services for apartments for residents (Riley et al., 2008). Besides, the onsite medical services from professionals specialized in senior care provide services like assisted living, memory care, independent living, inpatient rehabilitation, and continuing care retirement. These healthcare services cater to people with various healthcare needs and preferences, providing continuous care options as residents’ needs change over time.
Pros and Cons of Services Provided
Cedar Crest’s services have several pros and cons. The first pro is the comprehensive nature of its services. The organization offers a combined package of services that the residents need. The comprehensive package of services boasts the health status and quality of life of residents since they are readily available all the time. The second pro of the services offered is the provision of high-quality services to residents. The overall rating of the organization based on staffing, health inspections, and quality measures is above average (Medicare.gov.nd). This rating shows that the organization has established standards and mechanisms that ensure the services being offered are of high quality and comply with the set standards. The high coverage of COVID-19 vaccination among the residents and the organization’s staff is also a pro to the services offered by the organization. The coverage percentage of the residents and the staff is higher than the national or New Jersey average coverage scores. 85.3% of the residents are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 compared to the 42.4% national average score and 47.4% of New Jersey. 28.5% of Cedar Crest staff are fully vaccinated compared to 11.3% of national staff average coverage and 16.4% of the New Jersey staff (Medicare.gov.nd).
The organization is also rated high in terms of fire inspections and emergency preparedness presentation. The organization has automatic water sprinklers in all the required areas, showing its preparedness to deal with fire emergencies. The total number of fire safety and emergency preparedness citations is zero, which is better than that of the national, which is rated at 4.8 and 4.6 for New Jersey (Medicare.gov.nd). These preparations show the organization’s strength in handling emergencies and preventing more injuries or casualties. Besides, the organization also offers continuous care, and all the residents are registered in Medicare and Medicaid. Continuous care helps to handle the changing health needs of residents, while Medicaid and Medicare help to cater to the cost of healthcare services being provided to the residents. The services provided by the organization have also been boosted since the organization has 113 registered beds, which allows it to cater to a large number of residents.
In contrast, the services being offered by this organization have different cons. The first con is staffing challenges. The number of residents to be attended by a nurse in a day is higher compared to the national rating, showing the possibility of a high workload for the organization’s staff. An average of 110.9 residents are served daily compared to an average of 81 people attended by healthcare professionals in a day (Medicare.gov.nd). Besides, the continuous healthcare provision, together with the comprehensive nature of the healthcare services, may overload the healthcare professionals, leading to poor performance or burn-out. The organization has a total nursing turnover of 36.9%, which is still high even if it is lower than the national rating (Medicare.gov.nd). However, the high nurse turnover rating at the national level could be because of the higher number of nurses compared to those working for the organization. In addition, the organization’s services could be having some quality challenges. The overall quality measure rating of the organization is average, with short-stay quality measures being above average while long-stay quality measures being below average. The limited quality of services may compromise the effectiveness of those services among residents. In addition, staffing challenges and quality deterioration challenges may paralyze the availability and accessibility of specialized services, especially during peak hours.
Financial Overview
Several payment options are available for patients in Cedar Crest organization. The first option is private pay, which allows patients to pay medical costs directly from their pockets. This option is available for patients without long-term health insurance plans. Patients can also meet the cost of medical services through long-term care insurance. Some insurance providers provide long-term plans for their customers, catering to all the costs of residential homes and healthcare services provided. Patients can also meet the cost of healthcare services through the Medicaid plan, which caters to individuals above 65 years (Agarwal et al., 2023). Some people may start getting Medicaid payments even before 65 years if they are registered with a disability. Veterans benefits can also help to cater to the medical costs of individuals who had worked for the government in the previous years before retirement. Besides, patients may also meet medical costs through Medicare, which only pays for medicines, medical visits, and hospital stays, excluding the cost of assisted living.
Laws and Regulations
The laws and regulations that guide Cedar Crest Assisted Living organization include licensing requirements since New Jersey laws require all assisted living facilities to be accredited and licensed to ensure they meet the standard for care and safety. New Jersey laws also guarantee the right to privacy, dignity, and autonomy for all the residents of Cedar Crest Assisted Living facility (Thakur & Han, 2021). The health and safety standards established by New Jersey also guide the operations in the Cedar Crest assisted living facility. The standards include emergency preparedness, food safety, and medication management. Besides, Cedar Crest Assisted Living facility adheres to quality assurance and reporting standards set by New Jersey laws, which require all assisted living facilities to have a system to continuously monitor the quality of healthcare services and report any violation or incident to the state.
Recommendations for Improvements
Cedar Crest Assisted Living facility can improve its services by introducing continuous training of its staff to cater to the dynamic needs of the residents. Continuous training will ensure that the staff remains updated on the upcoming knowledge on making assisted living services better. Besides, the training will boost the job satisfaction levels of the facility staff, which will lead to better performance. Besides, the facility can also improve its services by increasing the availability and accessibility of specialized care services to cater to residents’ unique needs (Thakur & Han, 2021). The facility can also reduce the waiting time by recruiting more staff to enhance the quality and effectiveness of the care services. The waiting time can be reduced by investing more in technology to enable residents to book or consult for small healthcare needs online instead of waiting to see the doctor physically. Besides, the number of registered nurses can also be increased to reduce the workload and the waiting time. The facility should also explore better or new methods of enhancing its recreational and social programs and activities to build a more cohesive and contented community. Enhancement of these programs and activities will enable the residents to participate despite their unique needs or qualities.
References
Agarwal, R., Liao, J. M., Gupta, A., & Navathe, A. S. (2020). The Impact Of Bundled Payment On Health Care Spending, Utilization, And Quality: A Systematic Review: A systematic review of the impact on spending, utilization, and quality outcomes from three Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services bundled payment programs. Health Affairs, 39(1), 50–57.https://www.healthaffairs.org/doi/full/10.1377/hlthaff.2019.00784
Medicare.gov. (n.d.). Www.medicare.gov. Retrieved March 16, 2024, from https://www.medicare.gov/care-compare/details/nursing-home/315491?city=Pompton%20Plains&state=NJ&zipcode=07444#ProviderDetailsLocations
(n.d.-b). https://www.ericksonseniorliving.com/cedar-crest
Riley, G. F., Ptaszek, A. L., & Kane, R. L. (2008). EVALUATION OF THE ERICKSON ADVANTAGE CONTINUING CARE RETIREMENT COMMUNITY DEMONSTRATION.https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/document?repid=rep1&type=pdf&doi=4c46a95582283196036b597219beab5459edadc1
Thakur, N., & Han, C. Y. (2021). A study of fall detection in assisted living: Identifying and improving the optimal machine learning method. Journal of sensor and actuator networks, 10(3), 39. https://doi.org/10.3390/jsan10030039
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