Washington nursing home responsiveness requirements

Requires written anti-abuse policies, immediate reporting of every allegation of abandonment, abuse, neglect, financial exploitation or misappropriation (including injuries of unknown origin) to the department, other applicable officials and the facility administrator, bars any facility policy that interferes with a mandated reporter filing directly with the department and law enforcement, and requires investigation results to be reported to the state survey and certification agency within five working days.

The nursing home must ensure that all allegations involving abandonment, abuse, neglect, financial exploitation, or misappropriation of resident property, including injuries of unknown origin, are reported immediately to the department, other applicable officials, and the administrator of the facility.

Independent facility-level duty to immediately notify DSHS's Home and Community Living Administration of any abuse, abandonment or neglect allegation (including substantial injuries of unknown source), any unusual event with actual or potential negative resident impact triggering the disaster plan, and any circumstance threatening continuation of services.

The nursing home must immediately notify the department's home and community living administration of: (a) Any allegations of resident abandonment, abuse, or neglect, including substantial injuries of an unknown source, financial exploitation and misappropriation of a resident's property;

The underlying vulnerable-adult statute: mandated reporters must immediately report suspected abandonment, abuse, financial exploitation or neglect to DSHS, and must immediately report suspected sexual assault to both law enforcement and DSHS.

When there is reasonable cause to believe that abandonment, abuse, financial exploitation, or neglect of a vulnerable adult has occurred, mandated reporters shall immediately report to the department.

A nursing home must ensure physician services are available around the clock for emergencies, that each resident's medical care is supervised by a physician, and that a covering physician supervises care whenever the attending physician is unavailable.

Physician services are provided 24 hours per day, in case of emergency.

Requires sufficient qualified nursing personnel 24/7, an RN or LPN charge nurse accountable on every shift, a full-time RN director of nursing, RN coverage 24 hours a day for large nonessential community providers (16 hours a day minimum for essential and small nonessential providers, with an RN or LPN the remaining 8), and prompt staff response to resident requests for assistance.

The nursing home must ensure that a sufficient number of qualified nursing personnel are available on a twenty-four hour basis seven days per week to provide nursing and related services to attain or maintain the highest practicable physical, mental and psychosocial well-being of each resident... The nursing home must ensure that staff respond to resident requests for assistance in a manner that promptly meets the resident's quality of life and quality of care needs.

Statutory duty on the nursing home itself to be responsive to incoming communications and to return phone and electronic messages within a reasonable time — the closest Washington analog to a duty to respond to telephone calls.

Each nursing home must be responsive to incoming communications and respond within a reasonable time to phone and electronic messages.

Residents have a right to 24-hour telephone access that provides auditory privacy, is accessible to people with disabilities and sensory impairments, and does not consist of phones in staff offices or at nurses' stations.

The resident has the right to have twenty-four hour access to a telephone which: (1) Provides auditory privacy; (2) Is accessible to an individual with a disability and accommodates an individual with sensory impairment; and (3) Does not include the use of telephones in staff offices and at the nurses station(s).

Physical-plant counterpart requiring 24-hour telephone access on resident care units that allows private communication with family and medical providers, permits emergency contact to and from staff, is disability-accessible, and is free for local calls.

The nursing home must provide 24-hour access to a telephone for resident use per RCW 18.51.575 which: (1) Provides auditory privacy; (2) Allows for communications with family, medical providers, and others; (3) Allows for emergency contact to and from facility staff; (4) Is accessible to a person with a disability and accommodates a person with sensory impairment; and (5) Does not require payment for local calls.

The written emergency preparedness plan must include procedures for communicating emergency information to staff, residents and external partners, and must carry current emergency contacts for residents, state and local agencies, the developmental disability ombuds and the long-term care ombuds; the plan must be reviewed and updated at least annually and its location communicated to residents and staff.

Communicating emergency information to staff and residents as well as external partners, including emergency contacts for residents, state and local agencies, developmental disability ombuds, and long-term care ombuds;

Requires a wired or wireless nurse call system that registers a call by distinctive light at the room door and by distinctive light and audible tone at the staff work station, receiving calls from every resident bedside, every common and dining and activity area, common-use toilet rooms, and resident toilet, bath and shower rooms, plus an emergency signal device adapted for easy reach by the resident.

A wired or wireless communication system which registers a call by distinctive light at the room door and by distinctive light and audible tone at the staff work station. The system must be equipped to receive resident calls from: (a) The bedside of each resident; (b) Every common area, dining and activity areas, common use toilet rooms, and other areas used by residents; and (c) Resident toilet, bath and shower rooms.

Separately requires a resident call signal device in resident rooms meeting the call-system standard of WAC 388-97-2280.

The nursing home must provide a resident call signal device that complies with WAC 388-97-2280.

Requires the nursing home to maintain a quality assessment and assurance process that seeks out and incorporates input from resident and family councils (or individual residents and support groups) and reviews expressed concerns and grievances, with QAA committee records shielded from department disclosure except as needed to verify compliance with this section.

The nursing home must maintain a process for quality assessment and assurance. The department may not require disclosure of the records of the quality assessment and assurance committee except in so far as such disclosure is related to ensuring compliance with the requirements of this section.