Featured News - Current News - Archived News - News Categories

Ryan urges NYS Health Department to 'honor intent of "safe staffing" law'

Submitted

Tue, Sep 27th 2022 09:50 am

Ryan expresses concern that State DOH draft regulation ‘threatens to undermine law intended to protect nursing home workers and their patients’

On Monday, New York State Sen. Sean Ryan sent a letter urging the New York State Department of Health to abandon a proposed change to New York’s nursing home “safe staffing” law passed last year in order to maintain the original intent of the law.

His team stated, “Draft regulations issued by the DOH last month would eliminate the minimum penalty of $300 per day for nursing homes that fail to meet staffing requirements, a key element of the law that went into effect in New York on April 1.”

In the letter to DOH Commissioner Mary T. Bassett, Ryan expressed his concern that “this change would eliminate accountability on the part of New York’s nursing homes and directly subvert the goal of the legislation.”

Ryan said, “We worked for years to pass minimum staffing standards for New York’s nursing homes, and in April we finally saw that work pay off when the safe staffing law went into effect. Eliminating the penalty for facilities that do not meet the requirements would render the law ineffective and put residents right back at risk. I urge the Department of Health to reconsider the changes they have proposed to the law. We must prioritize the quality of care for the state’s nursing home residents, and the safety of the nurses and aides who take care of them.”

Hometown News

View All News