Nebraska nursing home responsiveness requirements

This is Nebraska's hard reporting clock: the licensee must notify the Department within 24 hours of having reason to believe a resident was abused, neglected, or exploited (and also of a suicide/violent/drowning/restraint death, an elopement, a fire, or disaster damage affecting a resident).

Within 24 hours of the following: (i) When the licensee has reason to believe abuse, neglect or exploitation of a consumer has occurred;

The administrator must ensure any alleged resident abuse — by staff, volunteer, family, visitor, or anyone else — is reported to Adult Protective Services or local law enforcement, fully investigated, and that the resident is protected throughout the investigation.

Ensure that a report is made on any alleged abuse of a resident by a staff member, volunteer, family member, visitor, or any other person to Adult Protective Services or local law enforcement as directed in the Adult Protective Services Act, Neb. Rev. Stat. § 28-372 and in the case of a child, Neb. Rev. Stat. § 28-711. All alleged abuse must be investigated, and residents protected from further abuse throughout the investigation;

Statutory mandatory-reporter duty: nurses, nurse aides, physicians, caregivers, and any owner/operator/employee of a department-licensed facility who has reasonable cause to believe a vulnerable adult was abused, neglected, or exploited must report to law enforcement or DHHS; the report may be phoned in and, if the department asks, must be followed by a written report within 48 hours.

he or she shall report the incident or cause a report to be made to the appropriate law enforcement agency or to the department.

Every resident's medical care must be supervised by a medical practitioner, and a substitute practitioner must supervise that care whenever the attending practitioner is unavailable.

The medical care of each resident is to be supervised by a medical practitioner, and another medical practitioner is to supervise the medical care of the residents when their attending medical practitioner is unavailable.

Every facility must have a physician medical director who is responsible for ensuring that medical practitioners are adequately available to the facility.

Each licensee must have a medical director who is a physician. The medical director is responsible for: (A) Ensuring adequate medical practitioner availability and support;

The facility must staff sufficient qualified nursing personnel on a 24-hour basis to deliver the nursing care called for by every resident's care plan.

The licensee must provide sufficient nursing staff on a 24-hour basis, with specified qualifications as follows, to provide nursing care to all residents in accordance with resident care plans.

Skilled nursing and nursing facilities must designate a licensed nurse as charge nurse on every tour of duty (intermediate care facilities, one tour per 24 hours), subject only to the statutory waiver in Neb. Rev. Stat. §§ 71-6018.01 and 71-6018.02.

Except when waived in accordance with Neb. Rev. Stat. §§ 71-6018.01 and 71-6018.02, skilled nursing facilities and nursing facilities must designate a licensed nurse to serve as a charge nurse on each tour of duty. Intermediate care facilities must designate a licensed nurse to serve as a charge nurse for 1 tour of duty each 24 hours.

The charge nurse must notify the Director of Nursing Services, the physician, and the family of any injury, accident, or adverse change in a resident's condition.

Notifying the Director of Nursing Services, physician, and family of changes in resident condition, i.e., injury, accident, or adverse change;

Residents have the right to telephone access, with auxiliary aids, in a setting where calls can be made privately.

Have access to the use of a telephone with auxiliary aides where calls can be made in private;

As a physical-plant condition of licensure, the facility must supply residents with non-coin-operated telephone(s) posted with emergency numbers.

EMERGENCY TELEPHONE. The licensee must provide a non-coin operated telephone or telephones with emergency numbers for use by residents.

The facility must keep the phone numbers and addresses of the DHHS Investigations Unit and the State Long-Term Care Ombudsman readily available to residents, employees, and others.

The licensee must ensure that the telephone numbers and addresses of the Department's Investigations Unit and the state long term care ombudsman are readily available to residents, employees and others.

Every licensee must maintain a disaster preparedness program that expressly addresses how communication will be maintained during a disaster, disease outbreak, or similar event, along with resident identification, relocation, hazard protection, continuity of supplies and care, and staff/resident education.

The licensee must have a disaster preparedness program to ensure the safety, well-being and continuity of care and treatment for the consumer, visitors, and staff during natural or other disasters, disease outbreaks, or other similar situations. The program must address: (A) How consumer identification will be maintained; (B) How communication will be maintained;

A written disaster plan is an enumerated facility record that the nursing facility must have and maintain, and all records must be available for inspection and copying by the Department.

Written disaster plan;

The facility must have a resident call system operable from resident beds, resident-used toilet and bathing areas, and exam/treatment areas that transmits a receivable signal directing on-duty staff to the exact location of the call.

The licensee must have a call system that is operable from resident beds, resident-used toilet and bathing areas, and examination and treatment areas. The system must transmit a receivable (visual, audible, tactile, or other) signal to on-duty staff which readily notifies and directs the staff to the location where the call was activated.

Nurse call systems must be carried on the facility's emergency power; in facilities built on or after 5/29/2024, emergency power must also cover essential care equipment, lighting, ventilation, heating, and medical gas.

Existing and new facilities must maintain emergency power for essential care and treatment equipment and lighting, medical gas systems, and nurse call systems.

The facility must maintain a quality assurance and performance improvement committee — including the Director of Nursing Services, the Medical Director or designee, and at least three other staff — that identifies problems, implements corrective action plans, and reevaluates them.

The licensee must have a quality assurance and performance improvement committee responsible for identifying issues which necessitate action, development and implementation of the action plan to correct problems and reevaluation of the problem to promote quality care and treatment provided to residents.

All licensed facilities must run a quality assurance and improvement program involving every discipline, with results recorded quarterly and reported to the governing authority annually.

The licensee must have a quality assurance and improvement program to collect data and assess care and treatment provided to the consumer, both concurrently and retrospectively. The program must include involvement by all disciplines. Results must be recorded quarterly and reported to the licensee's governing authority or licensee annually.