In the next few short years, AI will undoubtedly have a profound impact on various aspects of home care, including internal processes within home care agencies and empowering elderly clients to better manage their health within the comfort of their own homes.
With only a month left in the legislative session, state leaders appear no closer to solving the unprecedented crisis facing Rhode Island's nursing homes. Bleeding cash and unable to hire enough qualified nurses and aides, the facilities are being squeezed from all sides, according to nursing home administrators.
The imminent closing of another nursing home has put the spotlight on Rhode Island's highest-in the-nation minimum-staffing mandate, which has become a topic of end-of-session talks between the governor and legislative leaders.
A former employee at a nursing home in the West Side's Austin community is speaking out about what she calls "deplorable" conditions there. The facility is now on watch by the federal government. As CBS 2's Marissa Perlman reported Friday night, the nurse told us she wants to speak for the residents who she says don't have a voice. There are more than 230 beds at the Symphony Chicago West nursing facility, 5130 W. Jackson Blvd. – and sometimes there are four residents to a room. The employee says leaders are creating an environment of neglect that is just getting worse.
HB23-1228 authorizes the Department of Health Care Policy & Financing to move nursing facility reimbursement rate methodology out of state statute and into regulation over the next three years. During the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent labor market changes, the inflexible nature of the nursing facility statute inhibited HCPF’s ability to adjust to changes in market dynamics and operational costs for nursing facilities. The updated rulemaking process will provide both the industry and HCPF more opportunity to fully discuss what may be needed and adjust reimbursement rates to meet those identified needs.
The Senate Finance Committee voted in favor of a budget amendment that would provide licensed nursing assistants reimbursement for their certification program to become a medication nursing assistant. According to Sen. Howard Pearl, a Loudon Republican who introduced the amendment, MNA certification would play an important role in easing the workload of nurses at nursing homes and hospitals. “When it comes to dispersing certain medications, the LNAs themselves are not able to do it without the medical certification, or becoming an MNA,” he said.