ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — Nursing homes in New York will have to provide a minimum level of staffing under a new bill. New York will require nursing homes to provide a daily average of 3.5 hours of nursing care per resident, and post information about nursing staffing levels. The bill passed the Assembly on Tuesday and then headed for debate in the Senate. New York’s nursing homes have recorded 13,800 deaths of residents with COVID-19. Critics urged lawmakers to instead wait to see if staffing levels improve as new state rules require nursing homes to spend at least 70% of revenue on direct patient care.
Photo: Residents dine together, but socially distant, in the dining hall at RiverWalk, an independent senior housing facility, in New York, Thursday, April 1, 2021. Since the start of the pandemic, residents had been dining in their rooms. Only recently have they began to use the dining hall again, although they still maintain social distance with two separate dinner seatings and fewer people per table. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
