Washington, DC – The American Health Care Association and National Center for Assisted Living (AHCA/NCAL) today praised the heroic efforts of nursing home and assisted living operators, and their staffs, in the wake of Hurricane Ike, and urged Congress to ensure vulnerable residents have continuous, uninterrupted access to the quality care they require every hour of the day.
“AHCA/NCAL is enormously proud of the ongoing efforts of nursing home and assisted living staff in the impacted Gulf coast areas to ensure patients are protected at all times during this ongoing crisis,” stated Bruce Yarwood, President and CEO of AHCA/NCAL. “Besides the first responders, many individual caregivers are heroes who have gone above and beyond the call of duty to ensure our frail, elderly, and disabled – and their families – remain safe.”
Yarwood said AHCA/NCAL is in the process of chronicling the strong individual efforts of facility owners and staff as they work in make-shift conditions, sometimes with no power, to sustain ongoing critical health care and services.
In order to ensure that the frail, elderly and disabled have continued access to high quality long term care services, Yarwood called on Congress to include long term care in any hurricane relief package. As well, AHCA/NCAL is advocating for revisions to the Stafford Act so that all care providers – regardless of tax status – can access federal assistance for disaster relief efforts.
Yarwood also praised the federal response efforts from the leaders of the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services (HHS) and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). “HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt and acting CMS Administrator Kerry Weems have moved quickly to ensure vulnerable seniors in the affected areas on the Gulf Coast are able to retain access to the long term care and services essential to their health and well being – and we commend them for their swift, effective actions.” Concluded Yarwood, “At this time, we encourage Congress to follow the Administration’s lead and take rapid action to ensure continued long term care services in nursing facilities and assisted living communities throughout the Gulf region.”
The American Health Care Association and National Center for Assisted Living (NCAL) represent nearly 11,000 non-profit and proprietary facilities dedicated to continuous improvement in the delivery of professional and compassionate care provided daily by millions of caring employees to 1.5 million of our nation's frail, elderly and disabled citizens who live in nursing facilities, assisted living residences, subacute centers and homes for persons with mental retardation and developmental disabilities. For more information, please visit www.ahca.org or www.ncal.org.