Nursing home workers, residents, and families largely support CMS's proposed minimum staffing standards, recognizing that:
staff members are being extremely overworked, undercompensated, and not recruited or retained with benefit packages, work schedules and environments worthy of their professions or comparable even to those in minimum wage jobs
residents are enduring compromised and even endangered care from extreme staffing shortages including: cold and missing meals, mismanaged medications, lack of showers and unclean bedding, increased accidents and hospitalizations, denial of recreational activities, an increase in infections, wanderings, and falls, and the potential for abuse and neglect
ownership shenannigans and systems complex with triple-net leases, etc. have long been able to disguise profits as losses while the industry lobbies against ownership and financial transparency and owners, facilities, trusts, investors, and corporations earn millions
The industry has spent an evidently absurd amount of money lobbying Congress to promote an anti-staffing narrative and spread that message online and elsewhere non-stop ever since nursing home reforms were announced. Their disengenuous messages are believable enough that the House adopted a bill calling for a stop to the CMS proposed minimum staffing rule review process even before CMS has had an opportunity to read the 40,000 plus public comments.
And let's be honest. The minimum staffing proposed, while we are grateful for it and support it, is still not enough. It requires a staffing level that was not even enough to provide uncompromised care 20 years ago when long-term care residents were not waiting as long and not waiting until their conditions were as critical and needed as high a level of care to enter facilities.
But we support this rule and defend it because this minimum staffing proposal is a necessary first step to bring changes in our long-term care system that has not seen real reform since 1987, to push for improved jobs and to take a realistic look at improving the care of vulnerable Americans who depend on an industry in crisis.
Despite the demand of families, facility staff, nurses, doctors, and residents to require a minimum staffing standard, the proposal from CMS has been rejected by the industry and now rejected by our own House of Representatives.
Join nursing home workers, residents and family members for a webinar on Thursday, March 21st, at 1pm Central Time as we continue our urgent plea for minimum federal staffing standards and for our legislators to stop looking at this issue as a Democrat or Republican one but as a RESIDENT HEALTH, SAFETY, AND WELFARE ISSUE.
This webinar will focus on how safe staffing is possible and break down the financials and rebut the narrative that the industry does not have enough money.
REGISTER HERE:
We are Texas Caregivers for Compromise and we are #notgoingaway.