Someone Is Paid to Be on a Nursing Home Resident's Side: Every State Has a Long-Term Care Ombudsman, and 监察专员热线 Reaches the Local Office
Residents of nursing homes, board and care homes and assisted living facilities in the United States have a statutory advocate: the Long-Term Care Ombudsman. The Administration for Community Living (ACL) explains that every state, plus the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and Guam, has an Ombudsman program that works to resolve problems related to residents' health, safety, welfare and rights. Residents, their families and others have the right to contact their local Ombudsman program to understand their rights, learn about community resources and work through problems.
The Ombudsman's ground rules come from the federally established Residents' Bill of Rights. A nursing home that participates in Medicare or Medicaid, as most do, must promote and protect rights that include being fully informed in a language the resident understands, participating in all aspects of care, making independent choices, privacy and confidentiality, safe and appropriate transfer and discharge with a right to appeal, visits from friends, family and others of the resident's choosing, participation in social, religious and community activities, organizing and joining resident groups, complaining without fear of repercussions, freedom from discrimination, freedom from abuse, neglect and restraints, adequate medical care, and information about alternatives to nursing homes. Some states add a similar set of rights for assisted living residents.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that about 1.4 million older adults and people with disabilities live in nursing homes. An Ombudsman can be brought into matters from meals and visiting arrangements to care quality and discharge disputes, and the program's role is to resolve the problem from the resident's side, not the facility's.
A local Ombudsman program can be found online through the state program listings, or by calling ACL's Eldercare Locator at 监察专员热线. Families with a parent or spouse in a nursing home can save that number before they need it; asking early is far easier than arguing later. (Source: Administration for Community Living)
Source: Administration for Community Living
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: Wikimedia Commons 摄影，公共领域：护理院住户参加户外钓鱼活动（美国鱼类及野生动物管理局照片，示意：长期护理机构住户的日常与权益）
