Ombudsmen give voices to residents in nursing homes and assisted living facilities

The Senior Source is the ombudsman for Dallas County and ensures that 16,000 residents of nursing homes and assisted living facilities get dignified care each year. 

By Meg Townsend

When considering a move to a care facility, it’s imperative that older adults and their loved ones understand the rights guaranteed to residents. Ombudsmen like The Senior Source’s Arreale Turner (left) act as advocates for residents.(Courtesy The Senior Source)

Dallas County nursing home resident Ann (name changed for confidentiality) has multiple sclerosis and is in bed most of every day. One day she was trying to summon the nursing staff through her call button; however, she found she couldn’t operate it because of weakness in her hands. She told facility staff, saying she worried that she wouldn’t be able to alert them when she needed assistance in the future. Her concerns were ignored. Ann was also concerned the nursing facility was understaffed at night, and that she was receiving her medication hours later than she should. Feeling frustrated that no one was listening to her, she turned to her ombudsman for help.

Ombudsmen (derived from a Scandinavian term that means “advocate”) are independent spokespersons who give a voice to the residents of nursing homes and assisted living facilities, ensuring that residents’ needs are heard, met and addressed, as mandated by state and federal law.

In Dallas County, The Senior Source houses ombudsman services and oversees 79 nursing homes and 197 assisted living facilities. The ombudsman program is a valuable resource to individuals and families navigating life in a care facility (especially for residents who may not have family nearby), as well as families choosing facilities for their loved ones.

After an ombudsman heard Ann’s complaints and advocated on her behalf to the facility’s management, reiterating her rights as a resident and developing a plan to address her needs, Ann’s care improved significantly. She now has consistent access to staff who are trained to address her needs, and the facility installed a special call button for her that she activates with her chin when she needs help.

‘It’s important for residents to know their rights’

Choosing to move to a long-term care facility is a difficult decision for individuals and the loved ones who care for them. It’s also a common decision: 70% of older adults will need some kind of long-term care in their lives, whether for rehabilitation after surgery or for specialized care in a nursing home.

If and when it does happen, though, “It is so important for residents to know their rights,” says Suzanna Sulfstede, director of the Long-Term Care Ombudsman Program at The Senior Source. Those rights include all the same rights that they had before moving into a facility — plus a few more as designated by federal and state law.

October is Residents’ Rights Month, as designated by The National Consumer Voice for Quality Long-Term Care, and there’s no better time to revisit the laws that protect older adults living in nursing facilities. Under the 1987 Nursing Home Reform Law, nursing homes are required to “promote and protect the rights of each resident.” Federal and state laws protect residents of nursing homes and state laws protect residents of assisted living facilities. These laws are not voluntary; they’re mandatory and facilities are held accountable for their adherence to these laws. A nursing home’s participation in Medicare and Medicaid is contingent upon meeting these federal residents’ rights requirements.

Residents have a right to:

• All of the same rights they have as citizens of this country
• Be treated with dignity and respect
• Be free from abuse and neglect
• Live in safe, decent, clean conditions
• Be involved in making decisions about their care
• Receive visitors
• Have an electronic monitoring device in their room
• Not be discharged, except for very limited, specific reasons
• Express concerns without fear of discrimination or retaliation

For residents who cannot advocate for their rights on their own, an ombudsman fills the gap. “It is equally important for them to know that an ombudsman is available to protect their rights and be their advocate,” Sulfstede says. “Every day we see the difference an ombudsman makes in a resident’s life. Issues get resolved and quality of life improves.”

Care facilities are required to post information about the ombudsman program that serves it on both the facility’s website and at the facility itself. An ombudsman’s services are free of charge and their contact information should be accessible by any person in the facility. Since The Senior Source provides all ombudsman care for Dallas County, a list of ombudsmen for individual facilities can also be found on the nonprofit’s website.

What does an ombudsman do?

An ombudsman advocates for a resident upon request, when a resident reaches out, and through regular, unannounced visits to facilities. During these visits, ombudsmen talk with each resident about their care and may also talk to family members. Ombudsmen will work to resolve complaints on behalf of residents. The process is confidential and led by the resident, meaning that an ombudsman will not take action without the express consent of the resident or that person’s legally authorized representative, such as a power of attorney or guardian. Residents must also consent to who the ombudsman speaks with, as residents or their family may be uncomfortable with the ombudsman speaking with a particular staff member at the facility.

Ombudsmen listen to residents’ concerns, determine whether an investigation is needed and provide recommendations for possible courses of action to address complaints. Residents and family members should know that ombudsmen are independent from the facility and that all services are confidential.

Ombudsmen at The Senior Source also educate residents and facility staff about residents’ rights and abuse and neglect. These advocates are so sought after for their expertise that they also make policy recommendations to government agencies and elected officials. These ombudsmen have recently spent time advocating for a federal rule to implement a mandatory staffing ratio at nursing facilities.

In addition to advocacy for residents, ombudsmen help guide people in the community throughout the process of choosing a facility for a loved one. While they do not refer you to a specific facility, they can counsel families about specific needs or provide insight about common complaints addressed at certain facilities. Ombudsmen can also help individuals access information from the state’s most recent licensing inspection so that families looking to choose a facility are informed and confident in their decision.

How you can help

To extend its reach, The Senior Source also utilizes volunteer long-term care ombudsmen who are trained through a 36-hour certification course. This ensures that advocacy is available for even more residents in long-term care facilities across the county. “With the rising number of residents who are going into care, [it’s] a supportive mechanism to ensure quality health care and safety,” says Lue Sumlin, a certified volunteer ombudsman with the program. “The volunteer ombudsman position also serves a vital role with the families of those in the long-term care facilities. The families know there is an extra eye and help to their loved ones.”

The Friendly Visitor Program, also created and run by The Senior Source, is another way the organization provides care and advocacy for older adults. Groups of volunteers engage in fun and meaningful activities with adults living in long-term care facilities across Dallas County.

Additionally, The Senior Source serves older adults and their families through a variety of free resources beyond ombudsman services, including:

• Caregiver support groups and one-on-one care consultations for those who provide care for their older relatives
• Education, resources and tools to help prevent financial fraud and scams from happening to seniors
• Budgeting and signing up for state and federal benefits
• For seniors seeking employment: webinars, mock phone interviews and resume review

For more information about The Senior Source, visit their website.

Full Article & Source:
Ombudsmen give voices to residents in nursing homes and assisted living facilities

Looking out for elders: Volunteers sought to aid, monitor long-term care

By Dan McKay 

Dennis Ryan, a resident at Vecino Sanos assisted living facility in Santa Rosa, said he’s seen improvements at the facility recently. The key to any good facility, he said, is to have enough staff on hand to ensure residents get plenty of social interaction. (Eddie Moore/Albuquerque Journal)

SANTA ROSA – As a former certified nursing assistant, Dennis Ryan understands the importance of adequate staffing to help care for residents in nursing homes.

Sometimes, he said, a person wants more than just help addressing physical needs.

“There’s nothing wrong with sitting on the edge of the bed and shooting the bull,” he said in a recent interview.

Ryan, 75, is a resident at Vecino Sanos Assisted Living Center in Guadalupe County, where a confidential complaint in June, state officials say, raised concerns about health and safety. Since then, residents interviewed by the Journal say they’ve seen improvements.

State officials cite the changes at Vecino Sanos – including the appointment of a temporary administrator to complement the existing staff – as an example of the importance of getting more eyes and ears inside facilities that care for some of New Mexico’s most vulnerable residents, especially as the state’s population of older adults grows.

Margaret Booth, a caretaker at Vecino Sanos assisted living facility in Santa Rosa, talks to a resident in July. New Mexico is looking for volunteer ombudsmen to help comfort residents and to monitor conditions inside long-term care facilities.

They are hoping that as New Mexicans visit friends and relatives in nursing homes and similar facilities, they’ll alert the state to any potential problems.

To support that effort, the state Aging and Long-Term Services Department is aiming to expand its network of volunteer ombudsmen from 50 to 200 to help better cover the state.

Once trained, volunteers are assigned to a specific facility within their area and asked to commit to three hours a week.

The ombudsmen serve dual roles – comforting residents while strengthening accountability at long-term care facilities, officials say.

Changes at Vecino Sanos, for example, came after a complaint came through the ombudsman program, state officials said.

“Volunteers are an essential aspect of the ombudsman program,” said Gigi Greco of the ombudsman program. “… If you see something, say something.”

When complaints come in, the Department of Health investigates by reviewing records, conducting interviews and doing observations. The person who filed the complaint isn’t identified in any statement of regulatory violations issued to the facility, according to the state.

The state has the option of pursuing receivership, a legal process that allows the Department of Health to take over a facility temporarily.

That wasn’t the case for Vecino Sanos, where the governing board agreed voluntarily to make changes, according to state officials.

In fact, Rebecca Maes, administrator at Vecino Sanos, said she sought help from state agencies before the June incident that triggered a broader state response. (Click to continue reading)

Full Article & Source:

Looking out for elders: Volunteers sought to aid, monitor long-term care

Banned from nursing homes, families need to know if their loves ones are safe

Click to Watch Video

By Judith Graham

(Kaiser Health News)Families are beset by fear and anxiety as Covid-19 makes inroads at nursing homes across the country, threatening the lives of vulnerable older adults.

Alarmingly more than 10,000 residents and staff at long-term care facilities have died from Covid infections, according to an April 23 analysis of state data by the Kaiser Family Foundation.

 

But often facilities won't disclose how many residents and employees are infected with the coronavirus that causes the disease, citing privacy considerations. Unable to visit, families can't see for themselves how loved ones are doing.

 

Are people getting enough to eat? How are their spirits? Are they stable physically or declining? Are staff shortages developing as health aides become sick?

 

Perhaps most pressing, does a loved one have Covid symptoms? Is testing available? If infected, is he or she getting adequate care?

 

"This is the problem we're all facing right now: If you have family in these facilities, how do you know they're in danger or not?" Jorge Zamanillo told the Miami Herald after his 90-year-old mother, Rosa, died of Covid-19 only days after staffers said she was "fine."

 

In recent weeks, amid mounting concern, states including California, Connecticut, Illinois, Massachusetts and New York began releasing data about cases and deaths in individual nursing homes. (The data varies by state.) And the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services said it would require homes to report cases to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and to notify residents and families. (Previously, facilities were required to report only to states.)

 

Families' worst fears have been expressed in recent headlines, including a New York Times story that described "body bags piled up" behind a New Jersey nursing home where 70 residents had perished. Another investigation called nursing homes "death pits" and reported that at least 7,000 residents across the nation had died of Covid-19 — about 20% of all deaths reported at the time, April 17.

 

What can families do? I asked nearly a dozen long-term care advocates and experts for advice. They cautioned that the problems — lapses in infection control and inadequate staffing foremost among them — require a strong response from regulators and lawmakers.

 

"The awful truth is families have no control over what's happening and not nearly enough is being done to keep people safe," said Michael Dark, a staff attorney at California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform.

 

Still, experts had several suggestions that may help:

 

Stay in touch

 

With virtually all visitors barred from nursing homes since mid-March, frequent contact with loved ones via telephone calls or video visits has become even more important. In addition to providing much-needed emotional support, it signals to staffers that family members are vigilant.

 

"When a facility knows someone is watching, those residents get better care," said Daniel Ross, senior staff attorney at Mobilization for Justice, a legal aid agency in New York City. "Obviously, the ban of visitors is a real problem, but it doesn't make family oversight impossible."

 

If a resident has difficulty initiating contact (this can be true for people who have poor fine-motor coordination, impaired eyesight or hearing, or dementia), he or she will need help from an aide. That can be problematic, though, with staff shortages and other tasks being given higher priority.

 

Scheduling a time for a call, a video chat or a "window visit" may make it easier, suggested Mairead Painter, Connecticut's long-term care ombudsman.

 

Advocacy group AARP is pressing for Congress to require nursing homes to offer video visitation and to provide federal funding for the needed technologies. If you can afford to do so, buy a tablet for your loved one or organize a group of families to buy several.

 

Band together

 

More than likely, other families have similar concerns and need for information. Reach out through email chains or telephone trees, suggested Richard Mollot, executive director of the Long Term Care Community Coalition in New York City.

 

Ask your nursing home administrator to update families weekly through a conference call or Zoom video chat. Explain that families will probably call less often with repetitive questions if communication is coordinated.

 

Many nursing homes have family councils that advocate for residents, and they're potentially valuable conduits for support and information. Your long-term care ombudsman or administrator can tell you if a council exists at your facility.

 

Working with a group can reduce the fear that complaining will provoke retaliation — a common concern among families.

 

"It's one thing to hear 'Mrs. Jones' daughter is making a big deal of this' and another to hear that families of 'everyone on the second floor have noted there's no staff there,'" Ross said.

 

Contact ombudsmen

 

Every state has a long-term care ombudsman responsible for advocating for nursing home residents, addressing complaints and trying to solve problems. While these experts currently are not allowed to visit facilities, they're working at a distance in this time of crisis. To find your ombudsman, go to The National Consumer Voice for Quality Long-Term Care's site.

 

Twice a week, Painter holds an hourlong question-and-answer session on the Connecticut Long-Term Care Ombudsman Program's Facebook page. Among dozens of questions that people asked last week: What kind of communication can I expect when a family member is Covid-positive and in isolation? What's the protocol for testing, and are homes out of test kits? Could families get a robocall if a resident died?

 

One person wondered whether installing cameras in residents' rooms were an option. This practice is legal in eight states, but facilities may consider this elsewhere on a case-by-case basis. A fact sheet from The National Consumer Voice for Quality Long-Term Care lays out the pros and cons.

"Most of what we do is trying to work out better communication," Painter said. "When there are staffing issues, as there are now, that's the first thing that falls off."

 

Lodge a complaint

 

Usually, Painter advises families to take concerns to a nurse or administrator rather than stew in silence. "Tell the story of what's going on with the resident," she said. "Identify exactly what the person's needs are and why they need to be addressed."

 

If you think a family member is being ignored, talk to the director of nurses and ask for a care plan meeting. "Whenever there's a change in someone's condition, there's a requirement that a care plan meeting be convened, and that remains in effect," said Eric Carlson, a directing attorney with Justice in Aging, a legal advocacy organization.

 

If that doesn't work, go "up the facility's chain of command" and contact the corporate office or board of directors, said Robyn Grant, director of public policy and advocacy at The National Consumer Voice for Quality Long-Term Care.

 

If you're getting nowhere, file a complaint with the agency that oversees nursing homes in your state. (You can refer to this directory from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, the federal agency that oversees nursing homes.) This is a formality at the moment, since the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has temporarily released agencies from the obligation to investigate most complaints. Still, "there may come a day when you'll want a written record of this kind," Dark advised.

 

Complaints that are getting attention from regulators involve "immediate jeopardy": the prospect of serious harm, injury, impairment or death to a resident. "If you believe your concern rises to that level, make sure to indicate that," The National Consumer Voice for Quality Long-Term Care advised.

 

Also, contact local, state and national public officials and insist they provide Covid-19 tests and personal protective equipment to nursing homes. "Calls, letters — the lives of your loved ones depend on it," said Dr. Michael Wasserman, president of the California Association of Long Term Care Medicine.

 

Bring a relative home

 

Some nursing homes are asking families to take loved ones out of their facilities and bring them home. Every day, all day, Dark said, he gets calls from California families in this situation who are distraught and terrified.

 

Families need to think through these decisions carefully, said Dr. Joanne Lynn, policy analyst of the program to improve eldercare at Altarum Institute, a research organization. What if their loved one becomes ill? Will they be able to provide care? If their relative has dementia or serious disabilities, can they handle the demands such conditions entail?

 

Researchers in Ottawa, Canada, have developed a useful decision aid for families, available from The Ottawa Hospital Research Institute. (Americans can ignore the Canada-specific information.)

 

At the very least, "get plans in place in case your relative has a bad [Covid-19] case. People can go from stable to serious illness within hours in many cases," Lynn said.

 

This involves updating advance directives, including whether your loved one would want cardiopulmonary resuscitation, mechanical ventilation, transfer to the hospital in the event of a life-threatening health crisis or hospice care, should that be indicated.

 

Kaiser Health News (KHN) is a nonprofit news service covering health issues. It is an editorially independent program of the Kaiser Family Foundation that is not affiliated with Kaiser Permanente.

Full Article & Source:
Banned from nursing homes, families need to know if their loves ones are safe

Evicted from a nursing home? It happens more than you might think

More than 10,000 consumers complained about involuntary discharges in 2018

By Beth Baker

Moving a loved one into a nursing home can be difficult. Getting settled in a new environment, surrounded by strangers, is a challenge for anyone, often made harder if the person has cognitive impairment. Once the transition is made, family members hope it will be a long-term solution. But Laurice Redhead, of Washington, D.C., learned the hard way that nursing homes can force a person to leave.

Redhead’s late mother, Rosa Diggs, ended up in a nursing home after a bout of pneumonia and a hospital stay in 2009 ended up with doctors inserting a tracheotomy to help her breathe. The tracheotomy tube, which she had for the rest of her life, prevented Diggs from speaking.
With additional diagnoses of osteoporosis, arthritis and some cognitive impairment — all requiring complex care — Diggs spent the last couple of years of her life in multiple nursing homes.

One of the facilities looked good to Redhead on the outside, but she encountered problems for her mother. The physician there prescribed sedatives that Redhead didn’t think were needed.

“My mother was very quiet, polite, old school,” she says. “I asked if she was causing any problem, and [the doctor] said ‘No, it’s just to keep her quiet.’”

Eventually, after 18 months of expressing concerns about her mother’s medications and other problems, Redhead was told by the nursing home attorney that she had 30 days to move her mother out. The lawyer said the nursing home could not provide her with the care she needed. Rather than pursue her right to appeal, Redhead moved her mother into what turned out to be a substandard place. She died soon after.

“You live with this for years. It never goes away,” Redhead says of the distress she feels about what happened to her mother.

Rights of long-term care residents

Eviction stories like Diggs’ happen to thousands of nursing home and assisted living residents each year.

“Involuntary discharge [from nursing homes] is the number one complaint that [long-term care] ombudsmen have had to deal with for the past seven years,” says Lori Smetanka, executive director of the National Consumer Voice for Quality Long-Term Care.

More than 10,000 consumers complained about involuntary discharges in 2018, according to national ombudsman data. One common reason residents are told to move out: behavioral issues related to dementia or mental illness. But experts say these discharges are often unwarranted.

In 1987, Congress passed the landmark Nursing Home Reform Act, guaranteeing a set of comprehensive rights for residents, such as the right to receive adequate care, to be treated with dignity and respect and to make personal choices about how you dress or spend your time. (Unlike nursing homes, assisted living facilities are not covered by federal regulation, and states have varying rules.)

Included in the Nursing Home Reform Act is a section on a resident’s right to remain in a nursing home, unless a transfer or discharge “is necessary to meet the resident’s welfare” or “is needed to protect the health and safety of other residents or staff.”

The nursing home must give a resident at least 30 days notice, put the reason for the discharge in writing, indicate where the person will be moved and include contact information for the state ombudsman.

Residents have the right to appeal. If the eviction is due to nonpayment, the resident has the right to remain in the nursing home if the person has applied for Medicaid assistance and is awaiting a decision.

In 2016, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) revised the nursing home regulations. “This was the first major update in 30 years,” Smetanka says. One of the updated provisions was in the area of transfer and discharge. CMS found that some nursing homes were inappropriately claiming they could not meet a resident’s needs.

With the new regulations, “They have added extra protections,” Smetanka says. “The nursing home has to document specifically what the [unmet] need is, what attempts they took…and what services [the new place] is providing that the original place says they couldn’t provide.”

National Consumer Voice is training ombudsmen, surveyors, residents, family members and advocates in the updated rights and urges families to appeal improper nursing home discharges.

Blaming the victim?

“The main medical paradigm is to blame [difficult behavior] on the dementia,” says Dr. Allen Power, who worked in nursing homes for 22 years and is the Schlegel Chair in Aging and Dementia Innovation at the University of Waterloo’s Research Institute for Aging in Ontario. Power is the author of “Dementia Beyond Drugs: Changing the Culture of Care.”

“I reject this…to say it’s a symptom of dementia means it is caused by brain disease,” he says. “It could be something much deeper. For example, if a person is living in an environment where they have no choice or control; if strangers are bathing you, and there’s high staff turnover.”

Often agitation and anger “are a form of communication,” agrees Smetanka. “The key is finding out if it’s pain, hunger, thirst, fear or boredom.”

Power has found that rather than evict residents, nursing homes may be inappropriately using antipsychotic drugs. Sedation, he argues, “is a violation of rights.”

Instead, he and others say, nursing homes should conduct thorough assessments.

“You have to ask: ‘Have you really looked at everything? Have you seen patterns or triggers?” says Carmen Bowman, who has a consulting practice called Edu-Catering in Brighton, Colo. Bowman is a former nursing home state surveyor who trains long-term care staff on transforming their institutional culture into one that supports a high quality of life for residents.

People can be upset because they have a roommate or a staff member they don’t like, Bowman points out. Having a consistent, small team of caregivers who come to know the individual is fundamental to receiving good care, she stresses.

In general, though, long-term care facilities do not want to discharge people. “They represent revenue,” Bowman adds.

Dr. David Gifford, chief medical officer of the American Health Care Association, a nursing home trade group, says involuntary discharges are “an issue [our members] really grapple with, because it’s very upsetting when you can’t continue to care for an individual in your building.”

But there is a subset of people with dementia who have extreme problems that most nursing homes are unable to handle, Gifford says.

“Some people with dementia lose their ability to control themselves in socially appropriate ways, and they become intrusive in other people’s lives. Occasionally, those behaviors lead to really unfortunate situations where they harm, or are likely to harm, other residents or themselves. What leads to involuntary discharge is often when they become sexually aggressive or they can’t control their impulses, so they’re hitting other residents,” he says.

In such cases, the resident will be told to leave. Unfortunately, nursing homes that specialize in caring for people with extreme cognitive or mental health problems are few and far between.

What families can do

When moving a loved one to a long-term care facility, families and residents need to have realistic expectations, Bowman says. Sometimes a nursing home or other facility works well for the person for a while, but as the condition and needs change, the home is no longer a good fit.

“Mom or Dad may change due to depression, or (trauma) from (some other time) in their life, or dementia. And now where they’re living is not equipped to handle these,” Bowman says. “It’s nobody’s fault.”

In many cases, nursing homes will convince the family to move their loved one before issuing a formal discharge letter. Families may voluntarily comply, they may agree it’s not a good match or they may feel the home will not provide good care under the circumstances.

But if a formal discharge letter is sent, saying the family has 30 days to move the person, there are several steps to take.

The first is to contact the long-term care ombudsman. If regulations are being followed, the nursing home should have sent a copy of the letter to the ombudsman at the same time as the resident.

The ombudsman should be your advocate, although this is not always the case. For example, Redhead felt the ombudsman “was in bed with the nursing home.”

Ask the ombudsman what assessments have been conducted and what measures the care facility took to ameliorate the difficulty. Find out what services the staffers say they are unable to provide, and ask if the new place has them.

If you feel the discharge is unfair and not in your loved one’s interest, appeal the decision to the facility.

“The facility has a responsibility to meet the needs of the individual,” Smetanka says. “If they accept a person, essentially, they are saying they are able to meet those needs. They cannot ask a resident to waive their rights. They can’t say, ‘because of your dementia, if you become combative, we’ll discharge you.’

“If they can’t provide a specific type of service, such as a ventilator, they can’t accept (the prospective resident) and they have to tell you that,” Smetanka continues. “Dementia is not one of those special diagnoses. It’s one that nursing homes should be prepared to care for.”


Full Article & Source:
Evicted from a nursing home? It happens more than you might think

State: Patient advocates in short supply at long-term care facilities

By Daniel Axelrod

New York and the mid-Hudson are critically short of volunteers to help police nursing homes, according to a new report by state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli’s office.

The region and the state lack both volunteer and full-time paid ombudsmen, according to the comptroller, who defined the mid-Hudson as Orange, Dutchess, Ulster, Sullivan, Greene and Columbia counties.

Among other duties, New York’s ombudsmen identify, investigate and resolve complaints made by or on behalf of the 160,000 residents living in 1,500 long-term care facilities, including those in nursing and adult homes.

DiNapoli’s auditors found that, as of January, only about 600 of the state’s long-term care facilities had an assigned volunteer ombudsman, leaving the remaining 900 to be covered by just 50 paid full-time ombudsmen. That’s about half the minimum number of full-time staff recommended by state guidelines.

Locally, 40 of Orange County’s long-term care facilities were without an ombudsman as of January, while those tallies were three for Sullivan County and five for Ulster County. And the mid-Hudson’s full-time ombudsmen office had three full-time staff members in 2018 or one-and-a-half fewer than the state recommends.

Without ombudsmen, long-term care facilities’ residents and families can still call a state hotline to make complaints.

But, “Volunteers are desperately needed to make sure the elderly are protected and that they do have someone to go to with these complaints” in person, said Mark Johnson, a DiNapoli spokesman.
Part of the problem is that New York’s volunteer ombudsmen total has plummeted in recent years, falling 37 percent to 562 in 2018 from 890 in 2015.

That decline is attributable to several factors, said elder care expert Richard Mollot, who runs the Long Term Care Coalition, a nonprofit advocacy group. The state also subcontracts with his group to handle the mid-Hudson’s ombudsmen program.

In recent years, the state reorganizing and reducing the number of local offices for ombudsmen is partly responsible for the loss of volunteers, who’ve been asked to cover more disparate areas, Mollot said. The move was done to help the state comply with new federal requirements.

The state’s 15 ombudsmen offices, nearly all of which are run by nonprofits subcontracted by the state, also have spent recent years working harder to ensure volunteers are visiting facilities and logging time collecting complaints, Mollot said.

Those accountability, transparency and training requirements have contributed to a loss of volunteers, Mollot added, some of whom were more like “candy-striper” hospital volunteers, who made occasional visits rather than acting as strong advocates for long-term care facilities’ residents.

DiNapoli’s audit also cited the job’s challenges — volunteers being exposed to neglect and abuse — and the lack of pay. The mid-Hudson’s ombudsmen program has been experimenting with a pilot stipend program.

In terms of a lack of full-time staff locally and statewide, Mollot said the state just isn’t funding ombudsmen programs well enough.

“The answer is more paid staff and funding” for regional ombudsmen offices to hire full-timers, while recruiting and training more volunteers, Mollot said. “The ombudsmen are absolutely critical to protecting the elderly in nursing homes and in assisted living.”

Joe Guyt, 55, of Central Valley, who’s part of a class-action lawsuit filed against the Sapphire Nursing Home in Goshen over the March 2018 death of his 84-year-old mother, said he didn’t even know the facility had an ombudsman.

“Clearly, we need someone to better police these facilities,” said Guyt, who also serves on U.S. Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney’s public committee to improve local elder care.

Full Article & Source:
State: Patient advocates in short supply at long-term care facilities