Why It’s Time to Transform America’s Nursing Homes
The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed and exacerbated long-standing challenges impacting the long term care profession. The sector is dedicated to learning from this experience, renewing our commitment to our seniors, and offering solutions that will improve the quality of care in our nation’s nursing homes.
AHCA and LeadingAge ?are advocating for meaningful action now to protect seniors and prepare for a growing elderly population that deserves a robust, quality LTC system. We have prioritized four principles for nursing homes that can be applied to support better pandemic management, help prevent such devastation from happening again and strengthen nursing home care. These policy proposals may be considered by Congress and other policymakers either as a complete, legislative package, or individual policy proposals may be incorporated into other relevant legislation, so long as the necessary resources for each proposal are tied together.
The reforms fall into four categories:
- clinical improvements to enhance quality of care
- workforce improvements to strengthen and support our frontline caregivers
- oversight reforms to make systems more resident-driven
- structural modernizations focused on resident dignity and safety
AHCA highlights the need to prioritize Long Term Care residents and staff in a short-length documentary about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on long term care and the urgent need for reform. The documentary features AHCA leaders and long term care providers, including Parkinson, AHCA Chief Medical Officer David Gifford, MD, Health Management CEO Debbie Meade, and Marquis Companies/Consonus Healthcare CEO Phil Fogg, who discuss how public health officials failed to support nursing homes at the outset of the pandemic, limiting their ability to access critical resources.