Assisted Living Licensing Work Group Meeting Summary
On Friday, January 26, DOH held its regular quarterly assisted living licensing work group meeting with the associations and provider representatives. The meeting was attended by both Jim McCracken, President/CEO, and Theresa Edelstein, Regulatory Consultant, of LeadingAge New Jersey. Unfortunately, the AL survey team was not represented at today’s meeting. So, we don’t yet have the deficiency trend report. As soon as we receive it I will share it with you.
Highlights from today’s meeting:
- There was a net increase of 28 AL beds and 30 CPCH beds during the 4th quarter of 2017. Total AL beds are 18,870; total CPCH beds are 2,816. There are 14 ALP and 4 alternate family care programs.
- For the 4th quarter of 2017, there were no enforcement actions taken for AL or CPCH
- The ombudsman provided that attached report of complaints in assisted living for the group.
- Kathy Fiery reported that there are now 99 communities in the advanced standing program for 2018. Surveys have just begun for this calendar year; so, there is no trend or citation data available yet. There are 10 new participants for 2018; 2 participants left the program. Kathy shared the quality measures being used for the Advanced Standing Program for 2018 (attached). Two new consultants are working with the program: Pat Pesonon and Joanne Maxwell. They join Sandy Kubacki and Beth Bell.
- Theresa Edelstein reported that the initial outreach to AL/CPCH/ALP has occurred for the assisted living resident profile survey (ALRPS). Providers must review their log-on credentials and make updates so that they receive the information about the survey. A webinar on the ALRPS will occur on March 9 at 1 p.m. Minor revisions to the ALRPS have been made to ensure that participants respond to the question about LNHA or CALA credentials and that residents living in the same unit with a spouse/partner are accurately counted. The ALRPS will open for data entry on March 15 and close on April 30.
- DOH reported on the pass/fail rates by CALA training program for the 4th quarter of 2017. DOH will be reviewing these rates with each of the training program sponsors.
- The Associations will convene a work group to review the current AL/CPCH/ALP regulations which are due to expire in Dec. 2020. The work group will then submit recommendations to DOH for consideration and discussion. More to come on this in the near future.
- A question was raised about waivers for portable heaters in the event of a heat “emergency” to prevent the need to relocated residents. DOH responded that the time it takes for a waiver to be granted varies.
Feel free to contact James McCracken or Theresa Edelstein if you have any questions.
