An assisted living facility is not a nursing home. It doesn’t provide medical care and rarely has trained nurses on site. Assisted living facilities are not inspected by or supervised by the federal government. Typically, such facilities are monitored by a state agency – and they are doing a terrible job!
Not only are the states doing a poor job regulating these facilities, state laws and regulations are almost non-existent! For example, only 32 states require CPR and first aid certification for the staff. Just 24 require a nurse on staff and Alabama is the only state in which the medical director must be a doctor.
The Washington Post newspaper did an investigative series of stories on the poor care provided by assisted living facilities in Virginia. The article makes for interesting reading!
See what this CBS News article has to say about this crisis!