AHA comments on minimum staffing standards for long-term care facilities

AHA Oct. 26 urged the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services not to finalize its proposed minimum staffing levels for long-term care facilities and instead develop more patient- and workforce-centered approaches focused on ensuring a continual process of safe staffing in nursing facilities.
 
“In short, blanket numerical thresholds create inflexible and potentially unattainable standards that fail to account for patient needs, facility characteristics and the realities of the structural staffing shortages faced by the nursing home field,” AHA wrote, commenting on the proposed rule. “In addition to the conceptual flaws with numerical thresholds, implementation of the rule could severely limit access to nursing home care, particularly in rural and other underserved communities, lead to longer waits for emergency and inpatient hospital care, worsen staffing shortages across the care continuum and hinder innovative, new approaches to delivering quality care.”
 
Comments on the proposed rule are due Nov. 6.