Newswise — On April 22, the Biden administration announced a new federal rule requiring nursing homes to meet a minimum staffing ratio for registered nurses and nurse aides.
Stephen Crystal, director of the Rutgers Center for Health Services Research and a distinguished research professor at the Rutgers School of Social Work, commends the new regulation, even in the face of strong opposition from nursing home operators, as a step toward improved quality of care for patients.
The following quote from Crystal is available for pickup:
“The new staffing requirements are a long-overdue reform that can greatly improve quality of life and outcomes for nursing home residents. In the current under-staffed and under-regulated system, in which funds are too often siphoned off from direct care to profits through related companies, and where care is too often of low quality and indeed unsafe, the new staffing requirements are an essential reform.
It may surprise many to learn that the facilities that we call “nursing” homes often fail to have a registered nurse on premises at many hours of the day or night. In the context of the heavy care needs of today’s nursing home patient mix, these newly required levels are indeed essential minimums for patient safety and well-being.”
RSS