Making Patient Safety and a 'Homelike' Environment Compatible: A Challenge for Long Term Care Regulations

Abstract:     
This article examines the topic of resident safety in long term care, concentrating particularly on nursing facilities. The article asserts that, although the LTC industry and its regulators may learn much from hospitals' extensive experiences and efforts in the patient safety realm, these lessons are fundamentally limited because of an array of important distinctions between acute care and LTC in the United States. These distinctions carry major implications for devising and implementing effective legal and non-legal strategies to achieve the highest degree of LTC resident safety consistent with all the other important social values we desire the LTC system to protect and promote.

Keywords: safety, long term care, nursing homes, regulation

JEL Classifications: I18, K32

Accepted Paper Series