Nursing homes will have to maintain minimum staffing levels under a Biden administration proposal despite furious lobbying from the industry, which says it will be too onerous amid a continuing labor shortage.
Biden administration officials said the first-ever national staffing rule would require nursing homes that participate in Medicare and Medicaid to provide a minimum of 0.55 hours of care from a registered nurse per resident a day, and 2.45 hours of care from a nurse aide per resident a day. A registered nurse would be required to be on-site at all times and nursing-home care assessments would be strengthened under the proposal.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services estimates that about 75% of nursing homes would have to strengthen staffing in their facilities under the proposal. The proposed staffing standard exceeds those existing in nearly all states.
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The administration said it also plans to launch a national initiative to tackle the staffing shortage in the nursing-home industry. It will invest more than $75 million in financial incentives such as scholarships and tuition reimbursement to support staffing prospects for nursing homes.
Used to work in EMS, now just a lowly vollie, can’t agree with you more. I’d rather die before going to a nursing home, even the good ones. Those of us in EMS see the things no one else sees, we see what the state doesn’t see when they do their inspections, we see what is hidden from the families. But when we speak up, does anyone ever listen to us? Nope. I don’t know how any “civilised” society can be ok with treating their elderly the way we treat ours. Places where if you are standing in one place you have to keep shifting from foot to foot because if you actually stand still your boots will stick to the floor, residents in beds with sheets that look like they haven’t been changed in weeks, people crying for help all through the hallways, and just the general neglect and ignorance by staff, and when you do get staff who aren’t burned out and still care they are so overwhelmed by the patient ratios there’s still only so much they can do.