Unfortunately, nursing home visitation and visits to long-term care communities in NJ, PA, and beyond are once again being limited or restricted due to residents and/or staff contracting the COVID-19 virus. We have seen the devastating consequences of visitation restrictions on long-term care residents. During the past year, long-term care advocates have called for each community to allow for an “essential caregiver” during a health care emergency.  In June 2021, a bill was introduced in Congress to recognize essential caregivers. The Essential Caregivers Act (H.R. 3733) is bipartisan legislation that would give nursing home residents the right to have access [...]

Acknowledging that current statewide nursing home regulations are insufficient to meet the physical, psychological, and social needs of residents, Pennsylvania announced a number of changes this past week.  One of the most significant being a 35% increase in direct care provided to each nursing home resident -  4.1 daily hours, up from 2.7. Although lessons learned from the COVID-19 Pandemic contributed to these new nursing home regulations, studies show that raising the number of care hours improves the quality of care, prevents infections, falls, malnutrition, and dehydration.  In short, more care creates better outcomes. Of course, any new law, regulation, [...]