Jacksonville Injury Attorney Blog
Commitees of the Florida Senate and House have approved a proposal to allow a new 150 bed nursing home to be affiliated with Jacksonville University. The nursing home industry has objected to the proposal arguing that there are already many unfilled nursing home beds in the Jacksonville area.
The proposal woud allow more beds in the Jacksonville area despite a moratorium on adding new nursing home beds. In 2001, Florida lawmakers placed a moratorium on what are known as “certificates of need” for additional nursing home beds.
The proposed nursing home, through its affiliation with Jacksonville University, would provide a hands-on teaching forum to train its nursing students in geriatric and nursing home care. The result, of course, would be better educated and better trained nurses in Jacksonville and other parts of the state. In fact, Representative John Wood, who serves on the House committee, said the bill will improve standards in Florida’s nursing home industry.
We applaud this effort by the Florida Legislature. Hopefully, the bill will become law. While many nursing homes provide excellent care, far too often we see situations where a nursing home’s staff has not been properly educated or trained resulting in improper care, injuries or infections to residents.
The moratorium has been in effect since 2001, Since then, Florida’s popluations has both increased and aged. It is hard to imagine that there are so many empty nursing home beds in the Jacksonville area that additional hands-on training is not worth the extra beds.
Our law firm prosecutes cases of nursing home negligence and abuse in the Jacksonville and surrounding areas. If you need a Jacksonville nursing home lawyer, please feel free to contact us for a free no obligation consultation.