The American Hospital Association filed an amicus brief Oct. 24 in support of a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District Court of Texas challenging the federal government's nursing staffing level mandate.
Here are five things to know:
- The mandate requires long-term care facilities to have a registered nurse on site for 24 hours per day, seven days a week, as opposed to the current requirement of eight hours per day, seven days a week. It also requires total nurse staffing of at least 3.48 hours per resident day, registered nurse staffing of at least 0.55 hours per resident day and nurse aide staffing of at least 2.45 hours per resident day.
- The mandate is not yet in effect; it is set to be implemented over the next three years.
- The AHA brief calls the staffing level mandate a "one-size-fits-all" regulation.
- "Imposing inflexible numerical thresholds on long-term-care facilities will lead to worse patient outcomes and less patient-care capacity across the entire healthcare system," the AHA brief said.
- Twenty states and 19 nonprofit organizations filed a lawsuit Oct. 8 against the HHS and CMS over the nursing home staffing level mandate in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Iowa.
Read the full AHA brief here.