Nation's Top Regulator Says Nursing Homes Lack Fit Staffing.

by Alison Young, Free Press Consumer Affairs Writer, Arlington, Va.

The nation's top nursing home regulator said Tuesday that inadequate staffing and other staffing issues appear to fuel many patient-care problems and said regulators might support setting minimum federal staffing levels.

Nancy Ann DeParle, administrator of the U.S. Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA), told more than 400 nursing home advocates and workers attending a national conference that her agency next year will complete a study of how staffing affects care.

Although DeParle is waiting for that study before making recommendations to Congress, she noted problems stemming from issues such as low staffing, low pay and high turnover.

"It does appear to me that staffing is at the root of a lot of the problems," she said at the annual meeting of the National Citizens' Coalition for Nursing Home Reform.

If the study shows that to be the case, DeParle said she could recommend to Congress setting federal staffing levels.

Currently, federal law requires only that home operators have "sufficient" staff to care for needs of residents. In some states, including Michigan, state law does set minimum staffing levels.