Nursing Facility Transfer and Discharge: A Manual for Residents' Advocates

摘要

The reform law, enacted by Congress in 1987, confirms that a facility is theresident's home and that the facility may transfer or discharge a resident only if it can establish that at least one of the permissible grounds for transfer or discharge exists. Before proposing a transfer, the law requires a facility to identify and try to meet the resident's individual medical, nursing, and psychosocial needs as well as to accommodate the resident's reasonable requests. If transfer or discharge is still contemplated, the law requires that the resident be provided with notice and the opportunity for a comprehensive fair hearing to contest the transfer or discharge. These statutory rights, when fully exercised, give residents an opportunity to transform the demand for a transfer into the positive provision of needed services. This manual is intended to be a practical guide to transfer and discharge for legal services advocates and for ombudspersons who represent residents in transfer and discharge hearings.