Nevada program to restart visits to long-term care facilities

For the first time since March, seniors living in long-term care facilities will be visited by officials in the state’s Long-Term Care Ombudsman Program.

New guidance from Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is allowing employees of long-term care ombudsman programs across the country to re-enter long-term care facilities, the state announced Thursday.

Nevada’s Long-Term Care Ombudsman Program started on-site outdoor and window visits on Thursday. Indoor visits, in facilities without current COVID-19 cases, will resume on Oct. 19.

The agency, which reviews complaints and advocates for senior residents in long-term facilities and their families, has been operating over the phone because of the lockdowns at care facilities amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

“It’s really important because one of the chief key roles in the office is to foster relationships with the residents,” ombudsman Jennifer Williams-Woods said.

“We are now able to use all of our senses to observe what’s going on in the facility, and we haven’t been able to do that since the very first week of March. It will make us be able to advocate more effectively.”

Williams-Woods said the agency’s caseload has dwindled since the pandemic because the team is unable to visit residents at facilities in-person.

In July, the program dropped off activity books to residents to remind them that program ombudsmen were still there and willing to listen and advocate for them, which spurred an uptick in phone calls from residents, Williams-Woods said. She said she anticipates another spike in cases with increased visitation on site.

Ensuring safety

With COVID-19 cases still occurring in Nevada, the agency said that indoor visit frequency may change depending on the COVID-19 status of facilities in any given week.

Long-term-care ombudsmen will don personal protective equipment required by facilities and will follow screening requirements to ensure the safety of residents, staff and the ombudsmen, the state said in a news release.

To help family members safely visit their loved ones, the ombudsman program also purchased visitation booths from Super Color Digital. The visitation booths will be available to all skilled-nursing facilities, including rural hospitals with skilled nursing beds.

“That will be great for them as well. We realized that this is not going away,” Williams-Woods said. “And we need to allow some access for family members to go see their loved ones.”

Connecting through technology

The program also used CARES Act grant funds to buy 650 Kindle Fire tablets that will be available to licensed long-term care facilities throughout Nevada.

The tablets will be deployed in the next few weeks to the facilities to increase communication among residents and their family members and friends. They will also be used to increase resident access to the ombudsman program, as ombudsmen will have the ability to attend virtual care plan meetings and resident council meetings.

To provide technology support, the ombudsman program is teaming up with the Nevada CAN’s NEST Collaborative to provide free one-to-one telephone-based support.

Those needing technical help can fill out the form at tinyurl.com/nevadans-talk or call 211 from any phone and ask about receiving technical aid.

To report concerns about long-term care facilities, contact the ombudsman program at 1-888-282-1155. To report abuse allegations, contact Adult Protective Services at 1-888-729-0571.

Contact Briana Erickson at berickson@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5244. Follow @ByBrianaE on Twitter.