A new CMS Guideline suggests -
Nursing homes should provide environments that are more like home and give residents choices regarding their care, according to new guidance issued by the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Nursing home surveys will be conducted with a sharpened focus on resident rights in areas such as ensuring they live with dignity; offering choices in care and services; and creating a more homelike environment.
“These groundbreaking revisions matter in the daily lives of people who live in the nation’s long-term care facilities,” said CMS Acting Administrator Charlene Frizzera. “The improvements in the guidance are intended to support efforts under way to transform nursing homes into environments that are more like their homes through both environmental changes and resident-centered care giving.”
The proposals include a call to “de-institutionalize” physical environments by doing away with things such as meals served on institutional trays, noise from overhead paging systems and large nursing stations. They also note that residents have the right to choices concerning their routines, including scheduling waking, bathing, mealtimes and bedtimes.
“Many facilities cannot immediately make these types of changes, but it should be a goal for all facilities that have not yet made these types of changes to work toward them,” the guidance notes.
It’s a start to helping seniors living in nursing homes be treated like the independent people they have always been.
To learn more – http://www.cms.hhs.gov/transmittals/downloads/R48SOMA.pdf
Tags: Caregiver, nursing home, senior care