The California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform (CANHR) reports that the California Department of Public Health (DPH) has posted lists of the California nursing homes that have sought its approval to staff below the minimum staffing requirements the Legislature adopted last year in SB 97.
Thus far, 344 skilled nursing facilities have applied for “workforce shortage” waivers, while 391 facilities applied for “patient needs” waivers. The massive numbers of waiver requests expose the rampant understaffing in California nursing homes, CANHR said. Moreover, the waiver process is having the perverse effect of DPH endorsing understaffing at California’s most poorly staffed nursing homes rather than enforcing the (highly inadequate) minimum staffing requirements, CANHR said.
The federal government’s requirement for nursing homes to electronically report their staffing levels is a step in the right direction but obviously does not resolve staffing problems. The federal government does not have numerical minimum staffing requirements.
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