Nursing home operators in Rhode Island will need to meet new staffing standards if Gov. Daniel McKee (D) signs legislation headed to his desk.
The Nursing Home Staffing and Quality Care Act (2021-S 0002A, 2021-H 5012Aaa), passed this week by the Rhode Island General Assembly, also calls for an investment in training and skills enhancement for caregivers, and it would provide for wage increases. Lawmakers said the bill is meant to address an “ongoing crisis in nursing home staffing that has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.”
“Staffing shortages and low wages lead to seniors and people with disabilities not receiving the care they desperately need. The pandemic, of course, exponentially increased the demands of the job, and exacerbated patients’ needs,” Majority Whip Sen. Maryellen Goodwin (D-Providence) said in a press release. “We must confront this problem head-on before our nursing home system collapses.”
Goodwin sponsored the legislation with Rep. Scott A. Slater (D-Providence).
The legislation establishes that a minimum standard of 3.58 hours of resident care per day must be met by Jan. 1, 2022. The standard would increase to a minimum of 3.81 hours of resident care per day on Jan. 1, 2023.
“Our nursing home system was already facing enormous challenges and problems before COVID-19, and the pandemic has only made these issues much worse. In order for our patients to be treated and cared for properly, these changes to the law must be made,” Slater said in the press release.
