[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 166 (Wednesday, October 25, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H10812-H10813]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                NURSING HOME STANDARDS PRESS CONFERENCE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from Connecticut [Ms. DeLauro] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Speaker, it defies common sense that Republicans are 
stripping away basic protections for elderly residents of nursing 
homes, under the guise of cutting the bureaucracy. The fact of the 
matter is that quality standards for nursing homes are not bureaucratic 
and onerous, they are necessary. These regulations don't tie the hands 
of nursing homes, they keep nursing homes from tying the hands of 
seniors.
  Now, I cannot believe that my Republican colleagues are deliberately 
trying to put nursing home residents at risk, so I must conclude that 
they simply don't understand how these regulations protect nursing home 
residents from neglect and abuse. So, let me explain, briefly, how they 
work in my home State of Connecticut.
  As one Connecticut official comments in this article: ``Without these 
standards and people to watch them, these situations will continue. 
That man might still be counting the dots on the ceiling.''
  The Republican Medicaid plan will mean the end of uniform safety 
standards for nursing home residents. It will create a patchwork of 
standards across the country. Some States may do a great job, others 
may not. For nursing home patients it will be a crap shoot. The quality 
of your care will depend on where you live. That's wrong. Our seniors 
deserve better.
  Now, my Republican colleagues want the American people to believe 
that this budget package is about shared sacrifices for a noble 
purpose. But, 

[[Page H10813]]
there is nothing shared in this sacrifice and there is nothing noble in 
its purpose.
  This is a story from Monday's Connecticut Post which explains how 
these Federal protections worked for two people. It reads:

       Paralyzed in a car accident, a 38-year-old man lay flat on 
     his back for four days in a Connecticut nursing home, able 
     only to count the dots on ceiling tiles * * *
       In another Connecticut nursing home, an elderly man who 
     suffered a sudden onset of dementia was overdrugged by staff 
     to the point where he was unrecognizable and couldn't 
     function * * *
       In both cases, it took intervention by state ombudsmen 
     wielding copies of federal nursing home standards to correct 
     the problems and protect the residents.

  And, there is nothing revolutionary about returning America's seniors 
to the health care dark ages of bed restraints and mind-altering drugs.

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