As a follow up to our May 9th post, we report that a nursing home that intends to refuse return to a hospitalized resident, must issue an official notice of discharge. The home must also send the notice to the state office of the Long Term Care Ombudsman. This action is intended to eliminate the “discharge of a difficult resident by transfer to hospital” problem. By reporting to the Ombudsman’s office data will be collected on the extent of the problem. Here is a portion of the text:
A. Facility-Initiated Transfers and Discharges
In situations where the facility has decided to discharge the resident while the resident is still hospitalized, the facility must send a notice of discharge to the resident and resident representative, and must also send a copy of the discharge notice to a representative of the Office of the State LTC Ombudsman.
https://www.cms.gov/Medicare/Provider-Enrollment-and-Certification/SurveyCertificationGenInfo/Downloads/Survey-and-Cert-Letter-17-27.pdf
