Nursing home abuse and neglect has existed as long as nursing homes have. However, recent days and an increasing strain on medical staff across the nation resulted in an increase in cases of neglect.
As the population ages and finds more to feel concerned with in the way nursing homes run, many demand for changes to happen.
Tackling understaffing issues
A White House fact sheet came out discussing the current administration’s plan for improving the state of nursing homes across the country. They aim to focus on making nursing homes safer and improving the quality of life of those who live within them.
They intend to focus on three separate and distinct areas in order to cut down on the current issues and reach their goals of improvement. The first involves tackling the prevalent issue of understaffing.
Currently, the entire medical field suffers from an understaffing crisis. Due to the grueling hours and high demands of the job, many employees have quit in recent years. Not enough new employees fill their shoes, which puts even more pressure on newcomers and causes them to burn out faster. This proposed plan will focus on ensuring all nursing homes have sufficient staffing with properly trained personnel.
Providing information and holding homes liable
Next, they want to increase the amount of information available to the public. The public can make better-informed decisions on which nursing home they will trust if they have access to information about the conditions of the nursing home.
Finally, they will ensure that nursing homes that commit unsafe or improper care get held liable for their actions. They will enact immediate change or lose their taxpayer funding.
All in all, these parts of a plan can have a potential notable impact on the safety of nursing homes everywhere.