"The single greatest impediment to good nursing home care is a shortage of nursing staff," Grassley said. "Nursing home residents don't have enough people to feed them, to give them water and to turn them so they don't get bedsores. They suffer as a result. This situation has to change."
Grassley, the chairman of the Special Committee on Aging, introduced the Nursing Home Staff Improvement Act of 2000 with Sen. John Breaux, ranking member, and Sen. Jack Reed, committee member. The bill comes after the committee this summer pushed for the release of the most comprehensive study of nursing home staffing to date. Years late, only the study's first part was completed; it linked staff shortages to poor care.
The study concluded that nationwide, more than half ? 54 percent ? of nursing homes are below the suggested minimum staffing level for nurses aides. These aides are the lowest paid and least trained of all nursing home staff, yet perform most of the feeding and bathing of patients.
The Nursing Home Staff Improvement Act of 2000:
* Requires the Secretary of Health and Human Services to complete the report to Congress on the appropriateness of minimum nurse staffing ratios in nursing homes by July 1, 2001.
* Requires the Secretary to make recommendations regarding appropriate minimum caregiver to resident levels and minimum supervisor to caregiver levels for nursing homes. The Secretary is required to promulgate a final rule by one year after completion of the staffing report.
* Establishes a competitive grant program to the states for improving staffing levels in nursing facilities to improve the quality of care to residents. A state that secures such a grant may provide technical or financial support to nursing facilities, labor organizations, nonprofit organizations, community colleges, or other organizations approved by the Secretary. Thisauthorizes $500,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2001 and 2002.
* Requires nursing homes to submit accurate staffing information to the Secretary in a form and manner determined by the Secretary. The Secretary will periodically post and update such information on the Nursing Home Compare web site.
* Requires nursing homes to post daily the number of licensed and unlicensed nursing staff on duty per shift.
Grassley said his bill is not President Clinton's recently announced nursing home staffing proposal, although it is similar. Grassley said his bill is more specific than the President's proposal.
Grassley said he introduced the bill late in the congressional session with the hope of beingable to include the legislation in a large legislative package before Congress adjourns. If that effort is unsuccessful, he said, he will re-introduce the bill next year.
"I hope my colleagues will give this bill their full consideration," Grassley said. "If nursing home residents are to thrive, they must have enough staff to feed them, to give them water and to turn them so they don't get bedsores."