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Audit targets nursing home staff levels

Times-Tribune (Scranton, PA) - 7/27/2016

July 27--HARRISBURG -- State health officials should do more to ensure nursing home staff levels are adequate as they move to improve oversight of those homes, Pennsylvania's fiscal watchdog said Tuesday.

Auditor General Eugene DePasquale highlighted an audit finding that the Health Department wasn't effectively enforcing a state requirement that nursing home residents receive a minimum of 2.7 hours of direct care each day from nurses. This involves giving medications and tubal feeding if necessary.

If nursing homes aren't sufficiently staffed, the quality of life and quality of care for residents will suffer, said Mr. DePasquale, announcing the release of a performance audit of the agency.

In response, the department said it implemented a policy in April to assess nursing staff levels at the more than 700 nursing homes in Pennsylvania.

Mr. DePasquale and Health Secretary Karen Murphy, R.N., Ph.D., a Scranton native, appeared together at a Capitol press conference to discuss the audit, which makes nearly two dozen recommendations to improve oversight. The department started to make changes even before the audit was finished, Mr. DePasquale said.

The department created a task force last year to consider longer term changes in nursing home oversight and its report will be ready later this summer, said Dr. Murphy. The department is also considering updating nursing home regulations for the first time in nearly two decades, she added.

The audit does not identify which nursing homes were subject to complaints in the 22-month period studied, but Dr. Murphy said the public can view deficiency reports and sanctions for nursing homes on the department's website.

The audit's recommendations include:

--Continue the policy change of accepting anonymous complaints about nursing homes. Mr. DePasquale said a decision by Gov. Tom Corbett's administration not to accept anonymous complaints was intended to silence critics, but noted that was reversed in July 2015.

--The department should give an explanation when a sanction against a nursing home is not ordered but could have been.

The audit was conducted at the Health Department's request following a lawsuit filed two years ago by the state attorney general's office against a chain of nursing homes in Pennsylvania owned by Golden Living National Senior Care LLC. The lawsuit alleges inadequate care of residents at 25 Golden Living Homes, including locations in Scranton, Wilkes-Barre and Tunkhannock. A Golden Living executive visiting Harrisburg last April to announce a wage agreement said the company undergoes stringent state inspection of homes and corrects deficiencies when they become aware of them.

Contact the writer:

rswift@timesshamrock.com

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