Wyoming nursing home responsiveness requirements

Universal mandatory reporting: any person or agency who knows or has reasonable cause to believe a vulnerable adult is being or has been abused, neglected, exploited, intimidated or abandoned, or is self-neglecting, must report immediately to a law enforcement agency or to the Department of Family Services, and a good-faith reporter is immune from civil liability. W.S. 35-20-111 makes that duty apply 'without exception' to anyone with sufficient knowledge that a prudent and cautious person in similar circumstances would have to believe abuse occurred, and makes a knowing failure to report a misdemeanor punishable by imprisonment for up to one (1) year, a fine of up to $1,000, or both. The report may be made orally or in writing and must provide, to the extent available, the vulnerable adult's name, age and address, the person responsible for their care, the nature and extent of the condition, the basis of the reporter's knowledge, the names and conditions of other residents if the adult lives in a facility, the adequacy of the facility environment, and any evidence of previous injuries. The department must investigate every report and, if protective services are determined necessary, furnish them within three (3) days of receiving the report.

Any person or agency who knows or has reasonable cause to believe that a vulnerable adult is being or has been abused, neglected, exploited, intimidated or abandoned or is committing self neglect shall report the information immediately to a law enforcement agency or the department.

The facility must arrange necessary medical care in an emergency, keep written emergency procedures covering immediate resident care and who must be notified, and post at every nursing station a roster of back-up physicians with their telephone numbers for use when the resident's own physician or designated substitute cannot be found.

A list of physicians to be called in case the resident's physician or his designated substitute cannot be found shall be posted at every nursing station. Such roster shall include telephone numbers of the physicians.

Each nursing station must be staffed with an RN or qualified LPN as charge nurse on the day tour seven days a week and with an RN or LPN on every other tour, plus sufficient non-licensed nursing personnel 24 hours a day and awake night staff; minimum nursing care hours are 2.25 hours per skilled resident and 1.50 hours per non-skilled resident in each 24-hour period.

Each nursing station shall be staffed with a Registered Nurse or qualified Licensed Practical Nurse, who is the charge nurse on the day tour of duty seven (7) days a week.

Residents have the right to review the facility's grievance and complaint process on admission and be re-informed every six months, to voice grievances without discrimination or reprisal, and to have posted in a conspicuous place the telephone numbers and addresses of the Long-Term Care Ombudsman, Protection and Advocacy, the local DFS Adult Protection office, the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit, the State Survey Agency and the facility's own grievance representative. NOTE: this is an advocacy-contact-posting right, NOT a right of reasonable access to or privacy in the use of a telephone.

Have available in a conspicuous place telephone numbers and addresses of the Long-Term Care Ombudsman, Protection and Advocacy, the local Department of Family Services Adult Protection office, the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit, the Wyoming State Survey Agency, and the facility's grievance/complaint representative.

Every nursing care facility must develop and adopt a written disaster preparedness plan that conforms to chapter 11 ('Health Care Emergency Preparedness') of NFPA 99, Standard for Health Care Facilities; the rule states no independent communication-plan or emergency-contact-list requirement of its own.

All Nursing Care Facilities shall develop and adopt a written disaster preparedness plan in accordance with the Chapter 11, "Health Care Emergency Preparedness", of NFPA 99, Standard for Health Care Facilities.

In hospitals and nursing care facilities, nurse call systems and equipment must be tested against UL Standard 1069; Ch. 3 sec. 5(b)(i) separately adopts by reference the AIA 'Guidelines for Design and Construction of Health Care Facilities - 2006 Edition,' which supplies the underlying nurse-call station and coverage requirements, and sec. 6 requires nurse call outlets for beds, duty stations, corridor signal lights and annunciators to be shown on submitted plans.

In hospitals and nursing care facilities, nurse call systems and equipment shall be tested against the provisions of IHS UL Standard 1069.

Every licensed health care facility, nursing care facilities included, must implement a quality management function to evaluate and improve patient and resident care and services; the licensure rule defines that 'Quality Management Program' and makes its effectiveness an express criterion the Licensing Division weighs when issuing or renewing a license, with statutory confidentiality and civil immunity for good-faith participants.

Each licensee shall implement a quality management function to evaluate and improve patient and resident care and services in accordance with rules and regulations promulgated by the division.