Disaster Planning for Nursing Facilities

A series of hurricanes in the late summer and fall of 2017 have laid bare the inadequacy of disaster planning in most nursing facilities. Twelve people died in Florida after the air conditioning failed in their nursing home. A photo of nursing home residents in Texas sitting in several feet of water awaiting rescue shocked the nation. We released an issue brief offering seven recommendations for federal state and local governments to ensure the safety of nursing home residents in emergency situations.

Issue Brief: Why Many Nursing Facilities Are Not Ready For Emergency Situations

25 Common Nursing Home Problems and How to Resolve Them

Can a nursing home deny needed therapy services? Evict a resident for being “difficult”? Limit family members and friends to specified “visiting hours”? Many common nursing home practices are, in fact, illegal. This guide by Justice in Aging attorney Eric Carlson discusses some of the most common—and most problematic—nursing home practices, and explains what residents and family members can do to fight back. Download our free guide here.

Blog Post: Five Steps to Resolving Common Nursing Home Problems
Training: How to Resolve Common Nursing Home Problems

Fighting the Rollback of Nursing Home Protections

Historically, too many nursing homes have provided poor care, leading to unnecessary deaths and injuries among older Americans living in nursing homes.  To address the problem, Congress enacted the Nursing Home Reform Law, which, since 1990, has required nursing homes around the country to meet federal quality of care standards in order to receive funding through Medicaid or Medicare. Starting in January 2017, however, the health and safety of nursing home residents has become increasingly at risk.  In a variety of ways, nursing home lobbyists have urged CMS to eliminate or delay some of the revised regulations, and to dramatically reduce enforcement when a nursing home is found to violate the law.

More Here

Revised Nursing Facility Regulations

The federal government issued revised nursing facility regulations in September, and most provisions became effective on November 28. Now is the time for advocates, providers, and others to better understand how the regulations are changing nursing facility care.

Justice in Aging, in partnership with The National Consumer Voice for Quality Long-Term Care, and the Center for Medicare Advocacy, is developed a series of issue briefs on different aspects of the revised regulations, entitled A Closer Look at the Revised Nursing Facility Regulations. The series kicked off with a Fact Sheet entitled, Why the Recently Revised Nursing Home Regulations are Vital for for Nursing Home Residents. 

Training: Benefits for Consumers in the Revised Nursing Home Regulations
Training: A Deeper Dive into the Revised Federal Nursing Home Regulations: Taking Another Look at Key Sections 

The series of issue-specific briefs: