Nevada nursing home responsiveness requirements

The facility must adopt written policies prohibiting mistreatment, neglect, verbal/sexual/physical/mental abuse, corporal punishment, involuntary seclusion and misappropriation of property, must ensure all alleged violations and injuries of unknown origin are reported immediately to the administrator, to the Bureau (HCQC) and to other officials as state law requires, and must report investigation results to the administrator and the Bureau within 5 working days.

...all alleged violations of the policies adopted pursuant to subsection 1 and injuries to patients of unknown origin are reported immediately to the administrator of the facility, to the Bureau and to other officials in accordance with state law, and are thoroughly investigated.

A skilled nursing facility must provide or arrange for physicians' services 24 hours a day in an emergency, and must ensure a physician other than the attending physician supervises a patient's care when the attending physician is unavailable.

A facility for skilled nursing shall provide or arrange for the provision of physicians' services 24 hours a day in the case of an emergency.

The facility must have sufficient nursing staff on duty at all times, must employ a full-time RN as chief administrative nurse, must designate an LPN as nurse in charge on each shift, and must have an RN on duty at least 8 consecutive hours per day, 7 days a week.

A registered nurse must be on duty at a facility for skilled nursing for at least 8 consecutive hours per day, 7 days a week.

A patient in a skilled nursing facility has the right to use a telephone where calls can be made without being overheard, plus a separate right to privacy in written and oral communications and a right not to be prohibited from contacting or speaking with physicians, ombudsman advocates, relatives, and other persons.

Use a telephone where calls can be made without being overheard.

The facility must adopt written emergency and disaster procedures covering fires, severe weather and locating missing patients, train staff on them and run unannounced drills; separately, it must maintain and periodically revise the address and telephone number of each patient's legal representative and interested family members.

A facility for skilled nursing shall adopt written procedures to be followed by the members of the staff and patients in the case of an emergency or disaster, including, without limitation, fires, severe weather and locating missing patients.

CAUTION — Nevada has NO express nurse-call/resident-call-system rule for skilled nursing facilities; § 449.74539 sets only general physical-environment duties (safe environment, hazard-free, adequate supervision and devices to prevent accidents, handrails, lighting, ventilation, 71–81°F), and any call-system specification reaches Nevada SNFs only indirectly through § 449.74543(2), which requires compliance with NFPA 101 Life Safety Code and the Facility Guidelines Institute design guidelines adopted by reference at § 449.0105.

A facility for skilled nursing shall comply with the provisions of NFPA 101: Life Safety Code, adopted by reference pursuant to NAC 449.0105.

The facility must establish a quality assurance committee composed of the chief administrative nurse, a staff physician and at least three other staff members, which must meet at least quarterly to identify care problems requiring corrective action and adopt and carry out plans of action to correct them; committee records are shielded from Bureau disclosure and good-faith committee efforts cannot be used as grounds for administrative sanctions.

Meet at least quarterly to identify problems and concerns related to the care provided to patients for which corrective actions are necessary; and (b) Adopt and carry out appropriate plans of action to correct the problems and concerns that are identified.