The Federal Nursing Home Reform Act or OBRA ’87 created a set of national minimum set of standards of care and rights for people living in certified nursing Some of the most important resident provisions include:
• Emphasis on a resident’s quality of life as well as the quality of care;
• New expectations that each resident’s ability to walk, bathe, and perform other activities of daily living will be maintained or improved absent medical reasons;
• A resident assessment process leading to development of an individualized care plan 75 hours of training and testing of paraprofessional staff;
• Rights to remain in the nursing home absent non-payment, dangerous resident behaviors, or significant changes in a resident’s medical condition;
• New opportunities for potential and current residents with mental retardation or mental illnesses for services inside and outside a nursing home;
• A right to safely maintain or bank personal funds with the nursing home; Rights to return to the nursing home after a hospital stay or an overnight visit with family and friends The right to choose a personal physician and to access medical records;
• The right to organize and participate in a resident or family council;
• The right to be free of unnecessary and inappropriate physical and chemical restraints;
• Uniform certification standards for Medicare and Medicaid homes;
• Prohibitions on turning to family members to pay for Medicare and Medicaid services;
• and new remedies to be applied to certified nursing homes that fail to meet minimum federal standards.