Failure to provide the level of staffing needed to ensure quality of care for each resident admitted into the facility may be considered fraud and neglect and result in the submission of false claims.
Compliance Perspective – Staffing and Neglect
Policies/Procedures: The Compliance and Ethics Officer with the Director of Nursing will review the policies and procedures addressing adequate staffing levels required to meet the acuity needs of each resident admitted into the facility.
Training: The Compliance and Ethics Officer with the Director of Nursing will ensure that supervising staff are aware of the total hours of RNs, LPNs, and CNAs needed per shift and unit in order to meet the acuity levels of the residents.
Audit: The Compliance and Ethics Officer with the Director of Nursing should personally conduct an audit to ensure that resident acuity levels are assessed and adequate numbers of competent staff to meet those needs are on-duty at all times.
Two class-action suits have been filed on behalf of a former resident and the brother of a deceased resident against two New York nursing homes operated by a large for-profit corporation. The suits allege that infections, unsanitary conditions, and other instances of inadequate care were caused by understaffing.
Attorneys for the plaintiffs claim to have received numerous complaints from residents in the facilities about the substandard care they have received.
In the last four years, the two nursing homes scored above average, receiving three out of five stars on the federal Nursing Home Compare site, and both received one star for staffing which is below average. One facility received 23 citations from the State Department of Health over the last four years and the other received 27. The statewide average for that 4-year period was 32.
Although the State of New York does not specify patient-to-staff ratios in hospitals and nursing homes, the attorneys in this lawsuit plan to seek court orders that would require what they term “sufficient to maintain quality care” staffing in both facilities.
