Tuesday, May 21, 2019

Nursing home staffing transparency bill passes state Senate



HARTFORD — The state Senate passed a bill this week to require nursing homes to increase transparency regarding the types of caregivers they have on duty each day.

The bill, which goes next to the House, would give the state Department of Public Health authority to discipline any nursing home that fails to comply.

Last year, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced steps to strengthen oversight of nursing homes due to observed drops in staffing levels on weekends. The organization also noticed that there were days when a registered nurse wasn’t on site at certain homes.

The bill passed by the Senate this week would require nursing homes to calculate and post, at the beginning of each shift, the number of advanced practice registered nurses, registered nurses, licensed practical nurses, and nurse’s aides responsible for providing direct care to residents during the shift.

The information would have to be “in a legible format and in a conspicuous place readily accessible to and clearly visible by residents, employees, and visitors, including those in a wheelchair.”

The posted information would also have to include a telephone number or website that any resident, employee, or visitor could use to report a suspected violation of staffing requirements.

The bill would require nursing homes to make the information available for public review upon request and retain the information for at least 18 months after it is posted.

Currently, the Public Health Department requires that chronic and convalescent nursing homes provide a minimum of 1.9 hours of direct nursing staff per resident per day. A bill backed by the legislature’s Aging Committee seeks to raise the minimum to three hours. If a nursing home is found non-compliant, the bill calls for the Public Health Department to take disciplinary action or issue a citation against the home, which would have to be prominently displayed on-site. By law, the department could take such disciplinary actions as revoking a home’s license, issuing a letter of reprimand or a compliance order, imposing a corrective action plan, or placing the home on probation.

The bill adds protections for whistleblowers. Current law prevents nursing homes from discriminating or retaliating against a resident; a resident’s relative, guardian, or conservator; or an employee for filing a complaint or testifying in an administrative proceeding against the home.

Current law makes any nursing home found to have engaged in such retaliation liable for damages.

The bill would add a requirement that the home reinstate any employee fired on grounds found to be retaliatory. In the case of a resident, if the retaliatory action resulted in any change in the resident’s living arrangement, the home would have to restore the prior living arrangement.

Sen. M. Saud Anwar, D-South Windsor, vice-chairman of the legislature’s Public Health Committee, and a strong proponent of the bill, said he was excited to see the bill progress to the House.

“Our nursing home residents aren’t receiving the care they deserve,” he said. “Our nursing home caretakers do not have the time or resources to properly administer that care. This needs to stop.”

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Nursing home staffing transparency bill passes state Senate

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