Fix Oklahoma’s broken long-term care system
No nursing home resident should ever have to settle for poor quality care. But that is exactly what is happening at many nursing homes and other long-term care facilities across Oklahoma. COVID-19 brought to light many of the serious and chronic issues residents and staff face in these facilities. But long before the pandemic, many of these facilities were cited frequently for problems such as poor infection control, understaffing, inappropriate discharges and overuse of antipsychotics. Sadly, attempts to bring the industry up to standard are not working despite unprecedented levels of new taxpayer funding going to nursing home operators.
This is why we are asking you to contact your elected officials and tell them to prioritize reforming Oklahoma’s long-term care system. Specifically, we are asking state officials to:
• Enact auditing and transparency measures to ensure taxpayer funding is not funneled away from nursing home resident care.
• Ensure passage of legislation to make sure a greater percentage of taxpayer funding is serving the residents of nursing homes.
• Increase access to home and community-based services such as home health and adult day centers.
• Ensure all older Oklahomans are presented with options when they require long-term care.
• Increase frequency of nursing home and assisted living inspections and hold bad actors accountable for not meeting standards.
• Increase standards of care and ensure adequate staffing levels of trained staff.
We believe these reforms serve as a much-needed starting point, but lawmakers need to hear from you to take these matters seriously. Can you lend your voice to our work to improve nursing home care?
