Amelia Runkle doesn’t hesitate to say more nursing home residents will die because certified nursing assistants are stretched too thin to provide the hands-on care the residents require.
She has 38 years’ experience as a certified nursing assistant and knows firsthand how a reduction in the amount of time that she and colleagues spend on direct patient care under a new state guideline is detrimental.
“Residents are going to die, I should say are dying,” Runkle said, outside of a North Fort Myers nursing home Wednesday. “Tallahassee is making wrong choices.”
And:Heritage Healthcare center ordered to stop admissions as patients not treated for bed sores
She was among 30 members of the union, 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East, and representatives with AARP who gathered at noon outside Raydiant Health Care of North Fort Myers. Runkle works in a Venice nursing home.
They were protesting legislation that went into effect immediately April 6 after being signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis that lawmakers passed at the request of the nursing home lobby and for-profit nursing homes chains that own many of Florida’s nursing homes.
The legislation, HB 1239 and sponsored by state Rep. Lauren Melo, R-Naples, saves money for nursing homes because it cuts the required direct patient care time for certified nursing assistants from 2.5 hours a day to two hours a day, union officials say.
Florida has roughly 690 nursing homes with 84,448 beds, according to the state Agency for Health Care...
China has removed all medical advertisements on national television channels containing false claims as of the end of March, the National Radio and Television Administration said on Thursday. The ...