Idaho's Ombudsman's Program Is Staffed Better Than Oregon's - Should You Feel Safer?
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In an article on the Oregonian's website, Julie Sullivan laments the state of Oregon's Ombudsman's program. According to Ms. Sullivan, Oregon's ombudsman program has only one paid employee for every 6,692 long-term care facility beds. That is not good. Ms. Sullivan's article got me wondering how Idaho fairs in this arena.
One of the very first posts on this blog was about the Idaho Commission on Aging's Ombudsman program. If you recall, an Ombudsman is a person appointed by the Idaho Commission on Aging to investigate complaints concerning your care in either a Nursing Home or an Assisted Living Facility. The Ombudsman will insure your health, safety, welfare and rights are protected. You can contact the Ombudsman free of charge 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
According to the most recent survey available, the 2008 National Ombudsman Report, Idaho has one paid employee for every 1,054 long-term care facility beds. Although this is certainly better than Oregon, some changes apparently loom on the horizon for Idaho's Ombudsman's program. According to Ms. Sullivan, Oregon's Ombudsman's program is slated to loose two-thirds of its federal funding due to a scheduled change in the Medicare law. Idaho's Ombudsman program receives approximately 93.5% of its funding from the federal government. Given the state of the economy, it is highly unlikely any cut in federal funding will be replaced on a dollar-for-dollar basis by the state government. Idaho nursing home and assisted living facility residents may be in a much worse position in the coming year.
At the end of the day, making sure nursing home and assisted facility residents are safe is a full-time job. If you visit a family member, friend or loved-one at a facility, make sure their roommate or neighbor is doing alright. Unfortunately, an Ombudsman may not be around to do so.
