August 2025 What’s New? According to the Kentucky Department of Public Health COVID-19 activity is increasing but remains low. Check out the department’s Respiratory Viruses webpage as we move into fall and winter and learn more about COVID-19, flu and RSV. Personal Needs Allowance for Nursing Facility Residents Personal Needs Allowance (PNA) is a monthly sum […]
July 2025 What’s New? INVOLUNTARY Involuntary, a short film documenting the impact of involuntary discharges on nursing home residents, focuses on Carlton, a man in his 70s suffering from dementia, who is moved from a nursing home in the middle of the night. Involuntary and inappropriate discharges from nursing homes have long plagued […]
June 2025 What’s New? Study Proposes Using Nursing Home Case-Mix to Lead Staffing Decisions A study led by University of California researcher Charlene Harrington and published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society proposed using a nursing home’s case-mix index as a way to set expected daily nurse staffing levels. Under the Patient Driven Payment Model, the […]
May 2025 What’s New? The Long-Term Care Ombudsman Program: Vital Resident-Directed Advocacy In April of this year, a budget passback from the Office of Management & Budget (OMB) to the Department of Health & Human Services (DHHS) proposed to cut $40 billion from the DHHS 2026 budget. Each year, government agencies submit their proposed budget to […]
April 2025 What’s New? The Kentucky LTC Ombudsman Program held 20 LTC Forums organized by District LTC Ombudsmen and featuring 145 nursing home residents from 83 facilities across the Commonwealth during October Residents’ Rights Month 2024. The primary objectives of the forums were to: promote the voice of Kentucky’s nursing home residents; strengthen their […]
March 2025 What’s New? Advocating for Quality Care: Legislative Updates from the 2025 Kentucky General Assembly In the final days of the legislative session, the Kentucky General Assembly moved numerous bills through the legislative process with packed committee agendas and swift procedural decisions. Of the nine bills our agency advocated in support of, two were […]
What’s New? Advocating for Quality Care: Legislative Updates from the 2025 Kentucky General Assembly The 2025 legislative session of the Kentucky General Assembly has passed its halfway mark and the last day of the session, March 28th’s Sine Die, is fast approaching. Our agency remains committed to advocating for policies that improve the quality of […]
January 2025 Advocating for Quality Care: Legislative Updates from the 2025 Kentucky General Assembly The 2025 legislative session of the Kentucky General Assembly is underway, and our agency remains committed to advocating for policies that improve the quality of care and quality of life for residents in long-term care facilities. Senate Bill 27, sponsored by […]
November-December 2024 What’s New? Overflowing Gratitude! Lake Cumberland area residents wrote letters and poems to friends (featured below). During October Residents’ Rights Month residents repeatedly shared gratitude for their caregivers, families, friends, and ombudsmen. Too often residents of long-term care communities do not have regular visitors and when problems arise, they do not feel […]
October 2024 Community Education and Engagement Kentucky LTC Residents’ Rights Forums To celebrate Residents’ Rights Month this October, fifteen District Long-Term Care Ombudsman Programs across the state hosted forums to highlight nursing home residents. The forums were an opportunity for residents to share their voice and experiences in nursing homes. Forums included information […]