Rural nursing homes across the country, already understaffed, face significant new federal staffing requirements. With on-the-ground reporting from INN’s Rural News Network and data analysis assistance from USA TODAY and Big Local News at Stanford University, seven newsrooms explore what the rule change would look like for residents in communities across America.
The six homes in Mississippi with the highest rates of antipsychotic drug use are three private facilities in the Delta and three homes associated with the state’s psychiatric hospital.
Many assisted living centers across the state have fallen short of the mark on resident safety, and instances of neglect and delayed medical attention are prevalent, New Mexico In Depth found in a review of complaint investigations, inspection reports, and court filings for 215 facilities with nearly 6,000 beds.
The Sister Bay facility is not alone in its struggles with staffing. The U.S. has been experiencing a skilled nursing care staff shortage for decades. Staffing ratios have direct ties to the quality of care that aging and disabled residents receive.
Federal and state nursing home rules are enforced by NC DHHS surveyors who do inspections, but their limited staffing creates challenges.
About three weeks after the Monitor’s initial report, long term care advocates, providers and industry leaders urged lawmakers to provide additional funding to prevent nursing home closures.
New federal staffing standards meant to improve the care of millions of Americans in nursing homes could go into effect in as soon as two years. New Mexico’s nursing homes aren’t ready. Not even close.
While all three of Door County’s nursing homes meet state-mandated minimum ratios, they all would fail to meet the higher minimums contained in a pending federal proposal, according to a new analysis performed by Door County Knock in collaboration with other news organizations.
On average, the seven local nursing homes met the CMS’s proposed minimum staffing levels for CNAs in about a third of the second quarter of 2023. On the other 55 days, the same seven nursing homes would not have met the new minimum standards.
Advocates for residents say proposed federal staffing requirements for nursing homes are ‘a step in the right direction.’ Industry supporters say they aren’t attainable.
The nursing home industry opposes the first-ever staffing minimums but advocates say the proposed rules do not go far enough.
In Mississippi, all but two of the 200 skilled nursing facilities – those licensed to provide medical care from registered nurses – would need to increase staffing levels under federal regulations the Biden administration proposed in September.
Concerns persist over nursing home workforce shortages and potential closures.
This reporting is part of a collaboration between Mississippi Today, New Mexico In Depth, Door County Knock, Carolina Public Press, The Maine Monitor, JOLT and Barn Raiser. Support from The National Institute for Health Care Management (NIHCM) Foundation made the project possible.
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