Session Summary: Every organization and company is a tribe, or a network of tribes—groups of 20 to 150 people that form naturally, in which everyone knows everyone else, or at least knows of them. In this highly interactive session, Dave Logan shows participants how to upgrade their organization one tribe at a time. The result is unprecedented impact, innovation, and success at hitting key performance goals. At the heart of this session is the principals’ ten-year study on 24,000 people (published in 2008 by HarperCollins as Tribal Leadership by Logan, King, and Fischer-Wright) that mapped, for the first time, five stages of corporate culture and the unique leverage points to nudge a group forward. Read more about Dave and his work in PALTmed's Spotlight article:
PALTC26 Keynoter Hopes to Show Life Is Great

Learning Objectives:

• Assess their culture’s effectiveness level.
• Build upon values to overcome lack of consensus.
• Identify shared values in their organization.

Session Summary: The presentation will take the learners through the different paths a facility might take as it either moves towards termination due to a failed enforcement cycle or through receivership to successful stabilization of operations. As the speakers take the learners through the separate cycles the presenters will share at each stage, how a Medical Director has the opportunity to directly impact the quality of care and quality of life of the residents through their leadership and medical decisions. The presentation will also increase the understanding of how attending physicians, advanced practitioners and other partner health professionals can, within their roles, collaboratively work with the facility and the Medical Director to identify opportunities to improve care processes impacting the path of facility termination.

Learning Objectives:

• Develop an action plan for addressing concerns with facility leadership when a facility has repeated issues with meeting minimal federal expectations for quality of care and quality of life.
• Differentiate between a mandatory termination track for a facility due to continuous non-compliance and receivership due to failure to meet financial obligations.
• Identify the medical providers role in ensuring a safe transition for residents when a facility closure is imminent.

Session Summary: This session provides a framework for enhancing person-centered care (PCC) in long-term care (LTC) settings. Participants will learn to assess PCC practices and develop quality assurance and performance improvement (QAPI) plans that include innovative interprofessional education. The foundation for this session is a partnership between an academic institution and 5 LTC communities across the U.S. We will describe how focus groups and surveys with residents and staff were used to validate PCC domains, leading to the development of an Organizational Assessment Tool (OAT) administered at the 5 communities. Using areas of weakness in PCC identified through OAT, each community created and implemented interprofessional QAPI plans. A case study will illustrate how OAT findings were translated into a QAPI plan addressing PCC practices. Attendees will leave with an implementation framework to improve PCC in their own communities.

 Learning Objectives:

• Describe a process for assessing person-centered care practices in a long-term care setting using a validated survey instrument and qualitative data.
• Translate person-centered care assessment findings into targeted, interprofessional Quality Assurance and Performance Improvement (QAPI) plans.
• Outline a process for developing online, interactive interprofessional education specifically on person-centered care, addressing identified knowledge and practice gaps

Session Summary: This interactive session provides practitioners with real-world insights into how documentation impacts coding accuracy, billing compliance, and audit exposure. Using post-acute and long-term care (PALTC) examples, wea??ll explore what auditors look for, how patterns trigger reviews, and why well-intended notes may fail standards. Learners will engage with national/local coverage guidelines (NCD/LCD), audit and appeals processes, and understand why quality (not quantity) matters. Through case-based learning and interactive polling, this session empowers primary care providers to document confidently, support accurate coding, and enhance compliance, reimbursement, and clinical outcomes. By building audit literacy and documentation skills, healthcare professionals strengthen their roles as clinical leaders, supporting revenue integrity, educating peers, and reducing risk in the PALTC setting.

Learning Objectives:

• Describe the audit process from initiation to completion, including how providers/practices are selected, common PALTC audit triggers, and key elements auditors review in documentation.
• Apply proactive strategies to reduce audit risk, such as pre-audit reviews, coding to medical necessity using NCD/LCD guidance, and identifying high-risk patterns.
• Outline post-audit appeals and recoupment processes (e.g., CERT, RAC) and begin developing an action plan to strengthen audit readiness and compliance in their practice or organization.

Session Summary: Effective infection control and antimicrobial stewardship depend on knowing what to track and how to track it. This session equips healthcare professionals in PALTC settings with the knowledge and tools to identify priority metrics, capture accurate data, and turn findings into actionable improvements. Through real-world examples and practical guidance, participants will learn how to strengthen surveillance, meet regulatory requirements, and drive better resident outcomes.

Learning Objectives:

• Identify essential infection control and antimicrobial stewardship metrics required for PALTC regulatory compliance and quality improvement.
• Apply effective methods for tracking and analyzing infection and antibiotic use data, including line lists, antibiograms, and audit-feedback processes.
• Evaluate facility-level data to detect trends, measure progress, and guide interdisciplinary interventions to reduce infections and improve antibiotic use

Session Summary: This session explores how transitions of care are among the most vulnerable points in the healthcare continuum. This session will present evidence-based, tech-enabled strategies to strengthen coordination across the care continuum. Participants will learn actionable approaches for enhancing interdisciplinary collaboration, leveraging technology, and aligning care across teams. Emphasis will be placed on using technology platforms to support warm handoffs, digital documentation exchange, telehealth integration, and patient engagement tools. Special considerations—including behavioral health coordination and addressing social determinants of health—will also be covered to promote whole-person, equitable care.

Learning Objectives:

• Identify common breakdowns in care transitions and their impact on outcomes, especially for patients with complex needs.
• Implement evidence-based and technology-supported strategies to enhance communication and reduce errors during transitions.
• Evaluate models of care and policy levers that promote safer, more equitable transitions, with attention to behavioral health and social risk factors.

Session Summary: A PALTmed Ethics Committee work-group developed a practical online PALTmed Ethics Toolkit for providers and staff in PALTC settings. Members of the workgroup will provide a brief overview of the Toolkit development and domains. The domains of the toolkit include: Legal and Regulatory Background, Basic Ethical Principles, Clinical Ethics Terms and Concepts, Defining the Ethical Question, Creating the Ethics Deliberating Process, and Initiating an Institutional Ethics Committee. This 90-minute presentation will include case-based discussion and audience participation questions. A brief (15-minute) discussion of plans for future development of the online tool, including an audience poll to identify anticipated needs will follow. The session will conclude with a question-and-answer session.

Learning Objectives:

• Describe PALTmed resources to inform ethical decision-making and apply contents of the PALTmed Ethics toolkit to address common ethical dilemmas in post-acute and long-term care
• Understand both the CMS regulatory requirements for an a??ethics programa?? and the legal implications of ethical decision-making while recognizing that not all legal actions may be ethical and conversely, not all ethical considerations are necessarily legal.
• Debate potential innovative solutions for addressing ethical issues in PALTC and ways in which PALTmed members can inform future PALTmed ethics resources.

Session Summary: This session will feature discussions of issues relevant to the diagnosis, assessment, and management of heart failure, COPD/asthma, insomnia, and sleep apnea among older adults living in post-acute and long-term care settings. In this session specific updates will focus on expanded use of SGLT-2 and GLP-1 medications for heart failure, new inhaled and biologic therapies for COPD and asthma, upcoming changes in Beer's classification of medications used to treat insomnia, and advances in the treatment of sleep apnea including implantable devices and oral medications that will be available in the next year. Additionally, we will discuss relevant issues of staffing need and cost of these new treatments compared to prior standards of care as well as identifying opportunities for treatment de-escalation and de-prescribing of potentially inappropriate or harmful medications used to treat these conditions.

Learning Objectives:

• Create a treatment plan for frail older adults with heart failure and preserved ejection fraction that maximizes rehabilitation capacity.
• Create a patient-centered and value-based treatment plan for frail older adults with obstructive lung diseases
• Create a treatment plan to manage insomnia among people with dementia

Session Summary: Engagement in meaningful activity is beneficial for residents with dementia by enhancing well-being, reducing behavioral symptoms, and potentially decreasing sedentary behavior. This session will share practical, theory-based approaches that can be implemented in post-acute and long-term care settings to improve meaningful activity engagement for residents with dementia. We will present a four-step approach, motivational techniques, and a pragmatic tool designed to help staff and providers in these settings identify opportunities for meaningful activity for residents with dementia. Additionally, findings will be presented from a pilot study, funded by the Foundation for Post-Acute and Long-Term Care Medicine, to demonstrate the feasibility and preliminary efficacy of this approach for engaging residents with dementia in meaningful activity within assisted living communities.

Learning Objectives:

• Describe the benefits and challenges of meaningful activity engagement for residents with dementia
• Describe how to utilize a four-step approach to optimize meaningful activity engagement for residents with dementia in your assisted living community
• Demonstrate use of a pragmatic tool to identify individualized opportunities for meaningful activity that are tailored to the residenta??s preferences and interests

Session Summary: Antimicrobial stewardship is essential to protecting resident safety and combating resistance in post-acute and long-term care (PALTC) settings. This session equips medical directors, advanced practice providers, prescribers, and other healthcare professionals with practical tools to bridge the gap between policy and daily practice. Participants will explore current CMS and CDC stewardship requirements, learn evidence-based interventions such as antibiotic time-outs and facility antibiograms, and discover strategies to engage interdisciplinary teams. Through real-world case examples and actionable takeaways, attendees will leave prepared to strengthen antimicrobial stewardship efforts, optimize prescribing practices, and improve resident outcomes in their facilities.

Learning Objectives:

• Interpret federal and state antimicrobial stewardship requirements applicable to PALTC settings and the roles of medical directors, advanced practice providers, and other healthcare professionals in meeting them.
• Apply evidence-based principles of antibiotic prescribing stewardship interventions, such as antibiotic time-outs, facility antibiograms, and targeted feedback, to optimize antibiotic prescribing and monitoring in daily practice.
• Evaluate the impact of antimicrobial stewardship activities on prescribing trends, antimicrobial resistance patterns, and resident outcomes, and identify strategies to address performance gaps.