Navigating Long-Term Care: A Comparative Analysis of Regulations in Texas and California - Essay Sample

The regulations in Texas regarding Long Term Care (LTC) facilities include the issuing of licenses and inspections that are required to meet the stringent health and safety standards. The examination is necessary to maintain their good standing to provide long-term care for the people of Texas. The Texas Department of Aging and Disabilities is responsible for background checks of the facilities to ensure that they are in line with the procedures of responding to complaints (Gonzalez, 2016).

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The regulations in California concerning Long Term Care facilities include programs and state agencies such as the California Department of Public Health. The agency is responsible for licensing health facilities and generally overseeing the kind of services that they provide (Wang & Biedermann, 2012). There are various facilities in the State, and they cater to individuals in need of intermediate care, mental health issues, subacute care, and rehabilitation centers.

The regulations in Texas say that if a person complains about poor care or poor conditions at a facility, it is illegal for the institution to intimidate the comment or act to retaliate in any way against the complaint. Texas regulations are such that a facility needs to have sufficient procedures to receive and respond to complaints.

The regulations in California say that the residents have the right to privacy in their rooms and during visits from family, safe and clean living conditions, and can participate in activities both in and out of the facility (Estes et al., 2010). When a patient is admitted, the long-term care provider is required to give them a copy of their rights, and the facility must see to it that they follow these rights.

The most significant differences in the regulations are the treatment of patients. Texas aligns the rules of the facility to follow while those of California prioritize the patients who need to know their rights that the facility should uphold (Angel et al., 2019). The family should be consulted because, at times, the people in need of long term care are not in a position to make the best decisions concerning how they should be treated.

Age also impacts decisions because the reasoning of an individual who needs LTC is not the same as an average patient. Similarly, the use of services tends to limit access for others in terms of the care they need and the resources to obtain such care. In conclusion, laws regulating skilled nursing facilities should concentrate on satisfying the patients by meeting their needs.

References

Angel, J. L., Angel, R. J., & Caldera, S. M. (2019). Medicaid Long-Term Community Care in California and Texas: A Growing Fiscal Challenge in a New Era. In Contextualizing Health and Aging in the Americas (pp. 137-158). Springer, Cham.

Estes, C. L., Lohrer, S. P., Goldberg, S., Grossman, B. R., Nelson, M., Koren, M. J., & Hollister, B. (2010). Factors associated with perceived effectiveness of local long-term care ombudsman programs in New York and California. Journal of Aging and Health, 22(6), 772-803.

Gonzalez, T. (2016). It's Time to Get an A, Texas: A Proposal to Statutorily Empower the Texas Department of Aging and Disability Services with Greater Enforcement Capability to Address the Substandard Nursing Home Problem in Texas. Tex. Tech. Admin. LJ, 18, 103.

Wang, T., & Biedermann, S. (2012). Adoption and utilization of electronic health record systems by long-term care facilities in Texas. Perspectives in Health Information Management/AHIMA, American Health Information Management Association, 9(Spring).