Nursing Home Residents Have Rights
July 17, 2018
On July 8, 2018 The New York Times in an article entitled, ‘It’s Almost Like a Ghost Town’ Most Nursing Homes Overstated Staffing for Years, revealed that daily nursing home payroll records recently examined by Medicare differed significantly from previous information Medicare was gathering from the nursing homes’ own unverified reports.
According to the article, payroll records revealed “frequent and significant fluctuations in day-to-day staffing, with particularly large shortfalls on the weekend.”
When nursing homes are short of staff, residents get fewer services. There are gaps in patient care and avoidable hospitalizations are sometimes the result. Poorly staffed nursing homes mean that meals are delivered late, bathroom needs are ignored and pain medication may be delayed. Bedbound residents are repositioned to avoid bedsores less often.
Nursing home residents have rights and if you or a loved one are not receiving adequate care because of understaffing, complaints can be submitted to the New York State Department of Health on their website at www.health.ny.gov. No one should tolerate poor care in a nursing home.
