What's happening
This bill requires most nursing home inspections to occur outside regular business hours and mandates annual reporting on inspection timing.
Why it matters
Aims to increase oversight by mandating that at least 40% of nursing home inspections happen outside of standard business hours, potentially revealing issues that only arise during nights, weekends, or holidays when staffing and supervision may be lower.
Requires detailed annual public reporting on precisely when inspections occur for each facility, increasing transparency and allowing families, advocates, and policymakers to track whether facilities are being monitored at unpredictable times.
Explicitly prohibits advance notice of inspections to anyone outside the health department, closing loopholes that might allow facilities to temporarily improve conditions just for inspections.
Introduces direct accountability for health department officials who violate these provisions, including possible suspension or termination, aiming to ensure the new inspection rules are enforced seriously.
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Who cares
Headline styles
Surprise Nursing Home Inspections
Plain English, a few words. Used as the page title.
Sponsors
1 Co-sponsor
History
- Referred to health
- Referred to health
Companion bill
The same bill in the other chamber. A bill becomes law when one version passes both houses and the governor signs it, so either number can carry it.
Surprise Nursing Home Inspections
In Assembly Committee · Health · Sponsor Stephen Hawley
Full text
2 pagesUnderlined is new[Struck] is removedOfficial text on nysenate.gov ↗
STATE OF NEW YORK
113
2019-2020 Regular Sessions
IN SENATE (Prefiled)
January 9, 2019
Introduced by Sen. ORTT -- read twice and ordered printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Health
AN ACT to amend the public health law, in relation to the "Unpredictable Nursing Home Inspection Act"
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows:
Section 1. This act shall be known and may be cited as the "Unpredictable Nursing Home Inspection Act".
§ 2. The public health law is amended by adding a new section 2808-e to read as follows:
§ 2808-e. Unpredictable nursing home inspections. 1. Definition. For the purposes of this section, the term "business hours" shall mean the hours between eight A.M. and six P.M. on a Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday, excluding federally observed holidays.
2. The department shall conduct no more than sixty percent of all nursing home inspections in a calendar year during business hours.
3. The department shall submit an annual report based on the previous year's nursing home inspections outside of business hours to the governor and attorney general no later than the thirty-first of January each year. Such report shall contain:
(a) a list of each nursing home within the state;
(b) the dates and times each inspection was completed, sorted by facility;
(c) a clear indication of whether each inspection was completed during business or non-business hours; and
(d) the percentage of inspections completed during business hours for each nursing home.
4. No department official shall give any form of notice of an impending inspection to any individual not employed by the department
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[ ] is old law to be omitted.
LBD05349-01-9
S. 113 2
5. Any department official responsible for the scheduling of inspections who violates the provisions of this section shall be subject to suspension without pay and/or termination, as determined by the attorney general.
§ 3. On the effective date of this act, the governor shall send a copy of this act to the attorney general.
§ 4. This act shall take effect immediately.
Reflowed for reading: line numbers and page breaks removed. Cite the official text.
Sponsor's memo
Title of bill
An act to amend the public health law, in relation to the "Unpredictable Nursing Home Inspection Act"
Purpose or general idea of bill
To require that the department of health conducts nursing home inspections on nights, weekends, and holidays.
Summary of specific provisions
Section 1 allows the bill to be referred to as the "Unpredictable Nurs- ing Home Inspection Act."
Section 2 defines "business hours" and "non-business hours." It also mandates that the department conducts no more than 60% of nursing home inspections during business hours.
It requires the department to generate an annual report on the times of nursing home inspections, and authorizes penalties on department employ- ees who do not follow this law. Lastly, this section bans department employees from giving any form of notice of impending inspection to nursing homes.
Section 3 requires that a copy of this bill be sent to the attorney general upon its becoming law.
Section 4 sets the effective date.
Justification
Nursing home inspections are supposed to hold facilities to our state's standards. However, it's clear that inspections are currently falling short on that goal. As widely reported, and specifically in a Buffalo News series regarding nursing home conditions, our inspections are fail- ing to hold nursing homes to account.
A complaint I frequently receive from nursing home patients and families is that department of health inspections are far too predictable. Inspections are routinely conducted during business hours only, and many families expressed a belief that nursing home managers were aware of when inspections would happen.
Any reasonable facility manager would ensure that the facility is meet- ing standards if that manager knew an inspection was coming. However, the purpose of our state's standards is not to show facility managers how a facility should look when an inspector is around. The purpose is to keep facilities at or above the standard at all times.
Earlier this year, I wrote to the department of health to encourage the department to implement unpredictable inspections internally. The department claimed that it did conduct inspections at varying times, but when I requested proof of inspection dates and times, the department never responded to me.
If the department will not implement this policy internally, the legis- lature just do so through statute. By mandating inspections on nights, weekends, and holidays and banning any advance notice of inspections, nursing homes will have no idea when an inspection is coming, and will have no choice but to keep the facility up to standard at all times.
Although this may add strain on the department, it is a worthwhile meas- ure. The law's importance doesn't stop at 5pm, and enforcing the law around the clock will ensure our seniors are getting the care they deserve.
Prior legislative history
New Bill.
Fiscal impact
Minimal
Effective date
This act shall take effect immediately.
Summaries, headlines and scores are AI-generated from the official bill text. How we score bills. Source: NYS Open Legislation.