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Tennessee Nursing Home Abuse Laws

Many states have specific nursing home laws that go above and beyond federal standards to ensure cases of abuse are eliminated completely or kept to a minimum. In Tennessee, the state Department of Health has a set of laws designed for this purpose. These laws will look after the well-being of residents of nursing homes located within the state. Guidelines in Tennessee cover administration of medication, food and nutrition, and other issues. Additionally, the laws require that staff at the nursing home are properly trained and licensed to offer the best possible care of every patient.

Standards of Care in Tennessee

The state has a set of laws that ensure all nursing homes provide proper care. All administrators at this facility must have one or more certifications to ensure they are fully educated and experienced to handle the role. There are three different qualification standards that these administrators need to meet, including:

  1. Administrators must show that they have a Bachelor degree, obtained from an accredited school, in Health Care Administration.
  2. They must have a board certified training program that they attended for no less than six months in conjunction with their college degree of any type.
  3. The administrators must have an associate’s degree, as well as at least three years of experience in a role that involved management. The person must then go through a state approved training program.

If a person cannot meet one of these three requirements, then they cannot work as a nursing home administrator.

Employee Background Checks

In order to minimize the cases of nursing home abuse involving staff, the state of Tennessee also requires that all employees undergo a criminal background check before they can be hired at the nursing facility. Without the background check, a person cannot interact with patients or handle direct patient care. They must also be fingerprinted before they may begin working.

Laws for Abuse Prevention

The state also has specific laws that are designed to prevent resident abuse, which is defined by the state as anything that causes pain, mental anguish or injury to the resident. All employees of the facility are required by law to report any suspected abuse that they happen to see in a nursing home. Other things that are required by law include:

  • Every facility must have a nursing service that is available 24 hours to residents. Two nursing staff should be on duty at all times at a nursing facility.
  • All nursing home residents should be provided with good hygiene, including two showers a week. All patients should have their position changed every two hours to avoid bedsores and other problems.
  • Laws require that every dietary need is met properly for patients living in a nursing home. The staff who handles food and nutrition must be qualified to handle proper dietary practices. Three meals must be provided within a 24 hour period and no patient should go more than 14 hours without food.

Again, these laws are in place in order to ensure patients are properly protected when they live in a nursing home.

If anyone suspects abuse or is concerned that a nursing facility is not providing the proper care based on Tennessee laws, then it is important that these concerns are reported immediately. Additionally, the patient should be removed from the nursing home as soon as possible. These laws are in place for a reason, and they will help to ensure patients are not abused or neglected. However, abuse still does happen from time to time and it should be handled as soon as possible for the wellbeing, both mental and physical, of the resident.

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