What can you do if your loved one can’t feed himself but the nursing home staff just keep leaving the tray on his table? The Nursing Home Reform Act Residents’ Rights 42 CFR Ä 483 requires that provision of adequate nutrition be part of the services provided to all nursing home residents. The facility must provide adequate services to “attain or maintain the highest practicable physical, mental, and psychosocial well-being of each resident, as determined by resident assessments and individual plans of care.” Dietary Services must be included in the Medicaid or medicare daily rate and cannot be billed to the patient separately, and this includes feeding. The facility must provide special equipment if that is what a resident needs to be able to feed him or herself, and in lieu of other certified staff dietary aides, a nursing home may employ a paid trained Feeding Assistants to take care of feeding certain patients who have non-complex feeding needs: ” (i) A facility must ensure that a feeding assistant provides dining assistance only for residents who have no complicated feeding problems.(ii) Complicated feeding problems include, but are not limited to, difficulty swallowing, recurrent lung aspirations, and tube or parenteral/IV feedings.”
I was responsible as legal Guardian for the care of a fellow who was confined to his bed in a nursing home for the last few months of his life due to various illnesses and weaknesses. When I would visit him, I often saw that his meal tray was on his table, the containers were opened, and spoonfuls of food were on the floor or on his bed or on himself. It was apparent that he could no longer hold his spoon. He was rapidly losing weight. The patient insisted that he could feed himself and didn’t need help, but clearly he wasn’t getting the nutrition he needed. Or he’d say he wasn’t hungry – clearly not true, as he ate eagerly when I fed him. I had a discussion with the case manager and they began assigning someone to sit with him and feed him and encourage him to eat.
The family of a nursing home resident is not responsible to feed their frail loved one. This is the facility’s legal duty. Call for a care planning meeting and address this with them if you are told that there “aren’t enough staff” or “not enough time” or “the family needs to do it” or “the patient keeps refusing.”
Call for legal advice about the rights of residents of nursing homes … 732-382-6070