New Hampshire nursing home responsiveness requirements

For any reportable incident or allegation of abuse, neglect, mistreatment or misappropriation the licensee must fax notice to the Department at (603) 271-5574 within 24 hours and submit a completed investigation report within 5 days, and must immediately notify local police and the Department on an elopement; independently, RSA 161-F:46 requires any person suspecting abuse of a vulnerable adult to make an oral report immediately.

Notify the department by faxing a notice to 603 271-5574 within 24 hours from the time the reportable incident, allegation of abuse, neglect, mistreatment, or misappropriation becomes known, that an investigation is in progress

Every nursing home must have a medical director who is a New Hampshire-licensed physician and must provide "emergency response and crisis intervention" as a core service, and each resident must be seen by a physician at least every 30 days for the first 90 days after admission and at least every 60 days thereafter — but New Hampshire's rules set no 24-hour physician-availability or on-call standard of their own.

The licensee shall have each resident seen by a physician at least once every 30 days for the first 90 days after admission, and at least once every 60 days thereafter.

The director of nursing must maintain written personnel schedules, retained on-site for at least 90 days, showing at least one licensed nurse in the facility 24 hours a day, at least one registered nurse for 8 consecutive hours a day 7 days a week, and nursing assistants verified through the New Hampshire board of nursing. The core-service rule separately requires a licensed nurse 24 hours a day, but states the RN element only as services of an RN provided at least 8 hours within a 24-hour period — without the "consecutive" or "7 days a week" qualifiers that appear in the scheduling rule.

a. At least one licensed nurse in the facility 24 hours a day; b. At least one registered nurse, for 8 consecutive hours a day 7 days a week

By statute the resident may communicate, associate and meet privately with anyone, may send and receive unopened personal mail, and has the right to regular access to the unmonitored use of a telephone; the licensing rule separately requires the home to have a telephone residents can access.

The patient shall be free to communicate with, associate with, and meet privately with anyone, including family and resident groups, unless to do so would infringe upon the rights of other patients. The patient may send and receive unopened personal mail. The patient has the right to have regular access to the unmonitored use of a telephone.

An emergency management committee must adopt a written emergency preparedness plan that includes contingency plans for continuity of communications systems and a plan for alerting and managing staff in a disaster; emergency notification numbers must be posted in locations accessible to personnel and visitors; and each resident record must carry the name, address and telephone number of an emergency contact person, plus the name and telephone number of the resident's licensed practitioner(s).

(13) Include a plan for alerting and managing staff in a disaster, and accessing Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM), if necessary;

The nursing home must have a UL-listed resident communication (call) system reaching all residents so they can summon staff for care or in an emergency; New Hampshire sets no response-time standard for it.

Each licensee shall have a UL listed communication system in place so that all residents can effectively contact personnel when they need assistance with care or in an emergency.

The home must establish an interdisciplinary quality improvement committee of at least 3 members including the medical director plus nursing and administration representatives, meeting at least quarterly, which selects the indicators monitored, evaluates the data, determines and recommends corrective action, and evaluates whether the corrective action worked.

The nursing home shall establish an interdisciplinary quality improvement committee which: (1) Shall have a minimum of 3 members, including the medical director, an individual representing nursing and an individual representing administration; (2) Shall meet at least quarterly to evaluate quality improvement activities; and (3) Shall make recommendations to the administrator to improve the quality of care.