Posted by Paul Levin | Sep 03, 2023 |
The Biden administration has proposed Federal Nursing home minimum staffing guidelines that would require nursing home and assisted care facilities, impacting Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts facilities in New England. These minimum staffing guidelines would become applicable to any such facility that participates in federal programs that subsidize and pay for patient care which means the overwhelming majority of such nursing home and assisted care facilities The preliminary estimate as reported by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid service is that up to 75% of such facilities presently do not meet the proposed minimum guidelines. Competent staff, clearly developed policies and proper training and supervision go a long way to assuring the safety of nursing home residents. However, staff shortages in critical areas, particularly involving direct patient care, think ratios of staff to patients, will nevertheless render such facilities potentially unsafe for residents, particularly those that are medically vulnerable.