Connecticut advocates ask for nursing home staffing rule

HARTFORD, Conn. (WTNH) – Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) advocated alongside nursing home workers on Monday morning for a controversial federal staffing mandate.

Two dozen nursing home staff with the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) gathered outside the Connecticut Capitol holding signs that said, “Safe Staffing Now!” The union supports the Minimum Staffing Standards for Long-Term Care Facilities rule that was finalized earlier this year by the Biden administration. The rule requires facilities receiving Medicare and Medicaid funding to have a minimum number of hours of specified care per resident per day, and have a registered nurse onsite 24 hours a day.

Bonnie Gaudreau has worked in the nursing home industry for more than 30 years. She is in favor of the staffing standard mandate.

“People are dying by themselves, people are waiting too long for help,” she said. “And when you work in these settings, you become their family. You don’t want to desert them, that’s why you want to advocate for them because they deserve better.”

The mandates requires a nurse staffing standard of 3.48 hours per resident per day, which must include at least 0.55 hours per resident per day of direct registered nurse care and 2.45 hours per resident per day of direct nurse-aid care. The mandate also requires facilities to have a registered nurse on site 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Abdul Wilson is also in favor of the mandate. He sees the issue from multiple sides, as an employee at a nursing home, having a mother in a facility and as a resident himself in 2018.

“I was able to get up on my own, but there are so many residents that can’t, who need assistance,” he said. “When they have their call light on for 30, 40 minutes, and no one’s coming, that’s dangerous.”

Wilson added that the rule is necessary to make sure all patients, including his mother, get proper care.

The American Health Care Association (AHCA) filed a lawsuit in May against the rule. The complaint says in part, “To be clear, all agree that nursing homes need an adequate supply of well-trained staff.  But imposing a nationwide, multi-billion-dollar, unfunded mandate at a time when nursing homes are already struggling with staffing shortages and financial constraints will only make the situation worse.”

Matthew Barrett, president and CEO of the Connecticut Association of Health Care Facilities, which is a state affiliate with the AHCA, said the focus should be on better wages and benefits for nursing home employees, instead of a workforce mandate.

“There are simply not enough workers to fill the positions that would be mandated, so essentially, you’re setting up a health care system, which is struggling to get to the other side of this health emergency in healthy way, you’re setting it up to fail,” he said.

In addition to the lawsuit, there are proposed bills in the U.S. House of Representatives that could reverse the staffing mandate.

Blumenthal stood beside workers Monday encouraging the Senate to not pass that legislation.

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