Posted by Gary R. Ilminen, RN (209.83.13.194) on November 09, 2000 at 18:38:41:
Seven states have enacted new nursing home staffing laws, three took action in 1999 or 1998 and the laws should be in effect. Question is are those of you working in facilities in those states seeing any improvement in staffing? It would be interesting to hear from those of you who work in:
Arkansas: CNA staff to resident ratio on day shift of 1:7, 1:12 on PMs, and 1:18 on nights. (Law went into effect September 30, 2000).
California: Effective Jan. 1, 2000, minimum staffing hours per resident per day increased from 3.0 to 3.2.
Mississippi: Effective Jan. 2000, minimum nursing hours per resident per day increased from 2.33 to 2.67.
Several new state laws were passed this year and will become effective in 2001:
Delaware: Effective starting in March, a minimum of 3.0 hours of direct care giver time per resident per day. Ramps up hours required to 3.67 by 2003.
Minnesota: New law prohibits counting non-nurse aide staff in hours of care provided to residents for meeting minimum staffing hour requirements.
Maryland: New law requires facility to publicly post its actual staffing ratios on each floor of each nursing home.
Kentucky: Created a long-term care task force to consider mandatory staff to resident ratios and linkage of Medicaid reimbursement to staffing ratios. This is a great CNAs in Kentucky to speak out and be heard on the importance of staffing and its impact on quality of care.
For more information, contact the National Conference of State Legislatures, 444 N. Capitol St., N.W., Suite 515, Washington, DC, 20001 (202) 624-3567