Long-Term Care Services
The Office of Ombudsman for Long-Term Care (OOLTC) hears a multitude of concerns from residents in assisted living facilities and nursing homes and their families. Residents routinely report to the Office of Ombudsman for Long-Term Care (OOLTC) that they are not receiving all the services they are supposed to receive. In assisted living facilities, these complaints comprised at least 25% of all OOLTC casework from 2023 through 2025.
Residents experienced missed services which include a lack of response to requests for assistance, addressing symptoms, care planning and follow through, incontinence care, rehabilitation, activities, transportation, social services, and sufficient food quality and quantity. Some residents shared concerns of gross neglect – a lack of basic needs getting met. Common examples of these concerns include:
One resident in an assisted living facility reported to OOLTC that their facility provided them with another resident’s medications dozens of times in just a few months. The consequences for this resident included hospitalization.
In an assisted living facility with dementia care, another resident and their family reported that staff are supposed to check on the resident every hour at night. Because there is an electronic monitoring device in the resident’s unit, the family could see that these checks haven’t been happening routinely. The resident has fallen trying to get out of bed to toilet themselves and no one has checked on them or answered the phone when family call.
Residents and families frequently share their concerns that facilities are understaffed, and this is why these services are not provided. As OOLTC works to resolve these complaints with facilities, regional ombudsmen are frequently informed that the facility is “fully staffed.” OOLTC sees a need for a better definition of what “fully staffed” means.
If you are paying for services with a waiver like Elderly Waiver or CADI waiver and routinely not receiving the services you are supposed to receive, you can make a report about fraud, waste, and abuse to the Program Integrity Office’s hotline at 651-431-2650 or 1-800-657-3750.
To work with a regional ombudsman on these or other issues you or a family member may be experiencing, call OOLTC’s main intake line at 651-431-2555 or 1-800-657-3591.
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