Rhode Island State Senator Charles J. Levesque, who co-sponsored the Nursing Home Culture Change legislation (pdf) that passed last June, has posted an eight-part Capitol TV video on YouTube that captures the legislative process that made the bill law.
The law was the result of a compromise concerning adding nursing home bed capacity in order to promote culture change. Only when nursing facilities close, or reduce their bed capacity, will new nursing facility beds that are dedicated to culture change be permitted by the state.
The Nursing Home Culture Change law “maintains the statewide cap on nursing facility beds but provides that, as beds become available due to the closure or reduction of facilities, the majority of those beds will be transferred to home-like facilities that reflect the culture change values,” said RI Lieutenant Governor Elizabeth H. Roberts, who is also the chair of the state’s Long Term Care Coordinating Council, in a press release.
“Patients and their families are increasingly seeking more comfortable, personal, home-like atmospheres in nursing facilities,” said Senator Levesque in the release.
“This is a plan that will help transform and improve the care of the elderly in Rhode Island without harming the industry. It will help Rhode Island’s nursing homes move toward the cutting edge and provide the kind of setting that the patients and families of today want,” the senator added.
“I hope that other states will follow the excellent example that Rhode Island has set with the passage of this culture change legislation,” said PHI Director of Training and Organizational Development Services Susan Misiorski. “Elders and individuals with disabilities who live in America’s nursing homes deserve to live in settings that reflect all aspects of “home,” including privacy and self determination.”
– by Deane Beebe, dbeebe@phinational.org
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) partnered with the 
By Colleen Jolly, ICA Board of Directors 
The 
