THE LONG-TERM CARE OMBUDSMAN PROGRAM provides long-term care consumers with information about their rights and advocacy to exercise their rights.
The program is housed at the state level under The Ohio Department of Aging and locally sponsored by Advocates for Basic Legal Equality (ABLE).
Resident rights can be found in both federal and state laws.
Certified Ombudsman staff and volunteers make visits to residents of nursing homes and assisted living facilities informing residents of their rights and providing advocacy to exercise their rights when needed.
Certain adult group home residents, home care consumers, hospice consumers and MyCare consumers, are also eligible to receive services. Services are provided free of charge.
A detailed list of rights is found in the Ohio Revised Code section 3721.13.
A partial list of rights include: (1) The right to a safe and clean living environment.
(2) The right to be free from physical, verbal, mental and emotional abuse and to be treated at all times with courtesy, respect and full recognition of dignity and individuality.
(3) Upon admission and thereafter, the right to adequate and appropriate medical treatment and nursing care and to other ancillary services that comprise necessary and appropriate care consistent with the program for which the resident contracted. This care shall be provided without regard to considerations such as race, color, religion, national origin, age, or source of payment for care.
(4) The right to have all reasonable requests and inquiries responded to promptly.
(5) The right to have clothes and bed sheets changed as the need arises, to ensure the resident’s comfort and cleanliness.
(6) The right to obtain from the home, upon request, the name of any physician or other person responsible for the resident's care or for the coordination of care.
(7) The right, upon request, to be assigned, within the capacity of the home to make the assignment, to the staff physician of the resident's choice and the right, in accordance with the rules and written policies and procedures of the home, to select as the attending physician a physician who is not on the staff of the home.
(8) The right to participate in decisions that affect the resident's life, including the right to communicate with the physician and employees of the home in planning the resident’s treatment or care and to obtain from the attending physician complete and current information concerning medical condition, prognosis and treatment plan, in terms the resident can reasonably be expected to understand; the right of access to all information in the resident’s medical record; and the right to give or withhold informed consent for treatment after the consequences of that choice have been carefully explained.
When the attending physician finds that it is not medically advisable to give the information to the resident, the information shall be made available to the resident’s sponsor on the resident’s behalf, if the sponsor has a legal interest or is authorized by the resident to receive the information.
Additional residential rights will be listed in next months article.
For more information about our volunteer program, receiving advocacy services, or to discuss you or a loved one’s rights, call our confidential intake line at 419-2592891.
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