Utah nursing home responsiveness requirements

When a critical incident — expressly including any allegation or confirmation of abuse, neglect, or exploitation — occurs under the facility's supervision, the provider must report it to the Office of Licensing within one business day, report the allegation to Adult Protective Services and law enforcement within 24 hours, and notify the client's legal guardian within 24 hours.

(a) submit a report of the critical incident to OL in a format required by OL within one business day of the critical incident occurrence; (b) additionally ensure any allegation of an incident of abuse, neglect, or exploitation of a client is reported to the Division of Child and Family Services for a minor client or Adult Protective Services for an adult client and law enforcement within 24 hours; (c) notify the parent or legal guardian of each involved client within a 24-hour period from the time of the incident

Any individual — not just facility staff — who has reason to believe a vulnerable adult is or has been abused, neglected, or exploited must immediately report it to Adult Protective Services or the nearest peace officer or law enforcement agency.

Except as provided in Subsection (4), if an individual has reason to believe that a vulnerable adult is, or has been, the subject of abuse, neglect, or exploitation, the individual shall immediately report the suspected abuse, neglect, or exploitation to Adult Protective Services or to the nearest peace officer or law enforcement agency.

A nursing care facility must provide or arrange for physician services around the clock for emergencies, and must have a substitute qualified physician supervise a resident's care whenever the attending physician is unavailable.

The licensee shall provide or arrange for physician services 24 hours a day if there is an emergency.

A skilled nursing facility must have a full-time RN director of nursing, employ an RN at least eight consecutive hours a day seven days a week, keep a licensed charge nurse on every shift, and provide 24-hour licensed nursing services with nursing staff on the premises at all times (intermediate care facilities must also provide 24-hour licensed nursing and at least one RN directing nursing services).

For a skilled level of nursing care facility, the licensee shall: (a) designate a registered nurse to serve as the director of nursing on a full-time basis; (b) employ a registered nurse for at least eight consecutive hours a day, seven days a week; (c) ensure a licensed charge nurse is present on each shift; (d) ensure nursing staff are present on the premises 24 hours a day to meet the needs of each resident; ... (f) provide 24-hour licensed nursing services

Every resident has the right to confidential access to a telephone for free local calls and for accommodation of long-distance calls, to communicate privately with persons of their choice and send and receive unopened mail, and to reach the state long-term care ombudsman program.

have confidential access to telephones for both free local calls and for accommodation of long-distance calls according to facility policy

The facility's governing-body-approved emergency and disaster plan must identify who is notified in an emergency in priority order and how the facility communicates with outside emergency agencies, and current emergency phone numbers with a priority-ordered staff list must be kept at every nursing station.

The licensee shall have emergency phone numbers at each nursing station with responsible staff listed in the order of priority contact.

Nursing care facility construction is governed by the FGI Guidelines for Design and Construction of Health Care Facilities (2010 ed.) adopted by reference, which supply the nurse call system design requirement; Utah's own rule text presumes that system by exempting only intellectual/developmental disability facilities from it, requiring it to be wired to the critical branch of the essential electrical system, and requiring the call station's activating device to be a contrasting color so it is easily visible in an emergency.

A nurse call system is not required in facilities which care for persons with intellectual disabilities or developmental disabilities. With prior approval of the Department, a facility may change the system to alleviate hazards to residents.

The administrator must develop and follow a written quality assurance plan with a data-indicator collection system, an R380-600-compliant incident reporting system, and a quality assurance committee that meets quarterly, documents minutes and corrective actions, and reports findings to the administrator and governing body.

The administrator shall develop and follow a well-defined quality assurance plan designed to improve resident care that: (a) implements a system to assess identified problems, concerns, and opportunities for improvement; (b) implements actions that are designed to eliminate identified problems and improve resident care; (c) includes a system for the collection of data indicators; and (d) includes an incident reporting system in accordance with Rule R380-600