Senate Aging Committee Working on Nursing Home Issues
By nursing-home-lawyer | May 3, 2007
The Senate Aging Committee conducted hearings on nursing homes today. After the hearing committee chairman Sen. Herb Kohl called for better enforcement of nursing home standards. He specifically called for “a streamlined, cost-effective system of background checks nationwide for those who apply for jobs in long-term care facilities, much like the pilot program that is being conducted by the state of Michigan.”
Here’s some quotes from the hearings today:
Senate Aging Committee Hears Testimony on Nursing Home Problems
May 3, 2007 - Many nursing homes shown to be providing substandard care are still not being subjected to tough sanctions to motivate lasting improvements for and safety of residents, according to testimony presented yesterday by Kathryn Allen, Director of Health Care, Government Accountability Office. She was among several witnesses at a hearing of the Senate Special Committee on Aging chaired by Sen. Herb Kohl (D-WI).According to the GAO, in 2006 nearly one in five nursing homes nationwide was cited for poor care or, more specifically, care that can cause actual harm to residents.
The hearing was on the state of the nursing home industry twenty years after the landmark Nursing Home Reform Act (best known as OBRA ’87).
“Without question, the Nursing Home Reform Act improved nursing home care in this country,” said Kohl. “Today, many of the nation’s 16,000 nursing homes are providing adequate or excellent care. But shamefully, quite a few nursing homes are getting away with providing a lot less, putting a good number of the seniors living in long-term care facilities at risk.”
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Topics: Senate Aging Committee, Michigan Nursing Homes |
