Kentucky nursing home officials are arguing for less regulation, claiming excessive rules have created a “toxic” environment for providers, according to local reports.
Nursing homes in Kentucky often score high in the staffing and quality measure categories during inspections, but inspectors are more likely to cite facilities for “immediate jeopardy” violations than those in other states, state nursing home representatives told the Louisville Courier-Journal. Those citations may results in fines of up to $10,000 per day.
Nursing home representatives testified before a legislative committee last month to call attention to what they call the “broken regulatory environment” in the state, which leads to a higher number of lawsuits against facilities. They also said Kentucky was an “outlier” for its strict immediate jeopardy citations.
Advocate groups for nursing home patients said the industry’s campaign for decreased regulation could put the state’s 23,000 nursing home residents in danger.
“If you look at these inspections, all of them… this is serious stuff,” Brian Lee, executive director of Families for Better Care told the newspaper. “It’s not dust bunnies in the air vents.”
