This week's episode of HealthCap Weekly Wrap takes a deeper look at one of the most pressing challenges facing senior living communities this season — the flu. With widespread activity, rising hospitalizations, and a particularly aggressive strain impacting older adults, hosts break down why this year is different and what care teams need to know now. From early symptom recognition to timely antiviral use, the conversation covers actionable steps teams can take to reduce the impact of flu within their communities.

The episode also highlights the importance of respiratory protection programs, using the CDC's Respiratory Protection Program Toolkit as a foundation for keeping staff safe and operations compliant. Additional discussion includes enhanced barrier precautions, communication strategies with families, and staff morale during a high-pressure season. Whether your community has already seen cases or is bracing for what's ahead, this episode offers practical insights, reminders, and tools to strengthen your flu response and protect your residents and care teams.

In this week's episode of HealthCap Weekly Wrap, we kick off the new year with important updates shaping senior care. We cover CMS's push for ownership transparency and what it could mean for audits and enforcement. You'll also hear highlights from the 2025 "Dear Doctor" letter, new research on potentially avoidable hospitalizations among the most medically complex residents, and a call for public reporting of agency nurse staffing. Plus, we break down clarified CMS qualifications for speech-language pathologists and take a look at the first major update to chronic kidney disease guidelines since 2012. Whether you're on the clinical or administrative side of care, these insights can help guide your planning for the year ahead.

As we wrap up 2025, this episode takes a look back at the resources that resonated most with senior living professionals over the past year. Rather than focusing on download counts alone, we explore the themes and challenges that shaped the year—hydration, wound care, infection control, emergency preparedness, elopement prevention, restorative care, and regulation. From practical toolkits to thought-provoking webinars, each resource highlighted a shared goal: to better understand risk, strengthen daily care practices, and protect residents in meaningful ways.

We'll discuss standout materials like the Hydration Toolkit, the six-part Wound Care Webinar Series, the Legionella resources, and the ever-popular Emergency Preparedness Manual. You'll also hear about emerging priorities like transportation planning during emergencies, risk in assisted living communities, and shifting from blame to learning with root cause analysis. Whether you're revisiting familiar tools or discovering new ones, these resources continue to support the people doing the work. All of them are still available at riskmanagement.healthcapusa.com.