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1998 Long Term Care Ombudsman Report Posted

Wed, 01/10/2001 - 1:00am — Karen Stevenson
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The annual report of the 1998 Long Term Care Ombudsman program has been released. Long-Term Care Ombudsmen are advocates for residents of long-term care facilities. Thousands of trained volunteer ombudsmen provide an on-going presence in long-term care facilities, monitoring care and conditions and providing a voice for those who are unable to speak for themselves. Ombudsmen identify, investigate and resolve complaints made by or on behalf of residents, provide information to residents about long-term care services, represent the interests of residents before governmental agencies and seek administrative, legal and other remedies to protect residents, and perform many other important tasks to protect people who use long term care services.

The top five nursing home complaints were in categories involving poor resident care, lack of respect for residents and physical abuse. A three-year comparison of the top twenty nursing home complaints indicates the greatest increases in complaints about physical abuse, toileting, personal hygiene and unheeded requests for assistance, all of which point to persistent problems with lack of care for residents and the need for increased numbers of trained staff to assist residents. The top five board and care complaints were about menu quality, medication management, discharge/eviction, lack of respect for residents and physical abuse; the greatest increases over a three-year period were in the first three of these categories.

Insufficient numbers of staff to care for residents was the major institutional long-term care concern most frequently identified by the states in their FY 1998 reports. Ombudsmen linked low staffing to low wages and benefits and labor shortage and described how lack of staff relates directly to poor care for residents, which was cited as a major issue by a number of states. This correlates with the top five nursing home complaints, all of which relate to inadequate or poor care. As in previous years, discharge and transfer issues were identified as a major problem area by a large number of states, as was inadequate regulation of assisted living and similar non-nursing home facilities.

The annual report of the 1998 Long Term Care Ombudsman program has been released. Long-Term Care Ombudsmen are advocates for residents of long-term care facilities. Thousands of trained volunteer ombudsmen provide an on-going presence in long-term care facilities, monitoring care and conditions and providing a voice for those who are unable to speak for themselves. Ombudsmen identify, investigate and resolve complaints made by or on behalf of residents, provide information to residents about long-term care services, represent the interests of residents before governmental agencies and seek administrative, legal and other remedies to protect residents, and perform many other important tasks to protect people who use long term care services.

The top five nursing home complaints were in categories involving poor resident care, lack of respect for residents and physical abuse. A three-year comparison of the top twenty nursing home complaints indicates the greatest increases in complaints about physical abuse, toileting, personal hygiene and unheeded requests for assistance, all of which point to persistent problems with lack of care for residents and the need for increased numbers of trained staff to assist residents. The top five board and care complaints were about menu quality, medication management, discharge/eviction, lack of respect for residents and physical abuse; the greatest increases over a three-year period were in the first three of these categories.

Insufficient numbers of staff to care for residents was the major institutional long-term care concern most frequently identified by the states in their FY 1998 reports. Ombudsmen linked low staffing to low wages and benefits and labor shortage and described how lack of staff relates directly to poor care for residents, which was cited as a major issue by a number of states. This correlates with the top five nursing home complaints, all of which relate to inadequate or poor care. As in previous years, discharge and transfer issues were identified as a major problem area by a large number of states, as was inadequate regulation of assisted living and similar non-nursing home facilities.