| |
Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
 | |
|
State long term care ombudsman programs
— factors associated with perceived effectiveness | | Author(s) | Carroll L Estes, Donna M Zulman, Sheryl C Goldberg |
| Journal title | The Gerontologist, vol 44, no 1, February 2004 |
| Pages | pp 104-115 |
| Source | http://www.geron.org |
| Keywords | Advocacy ; Voluntary workers ; Nursing homes ; Complaints [services] ; Performance ; United States of America. |
| Annotation | Since 1978, all US states are required to develop a long term care ombudsman program (LTCOP) for identifying and resolving complaints made on behalf of LTC residents. This article reports from a nationwide study on factors associated with the perceived effectiveness of state LTCOPs. The study used telephone interviews with ombudsmen and data from the National Ombudsman Reporting System. Several factors limit the perceived effectiveness of state LTCOPs, including insufficient funding and insufficient autonomy. Despite such problems, state ombudsmen report that their programmes meet statutory mandated requirements with varying degrees of effectiveness. Findings show significant positive associations between programme funding and paid and volunteer staff levels, and between the ratio of long-term care beds per ombudsman and the percentage of nursing facilities visited. Sufficient funding is positively associated with perceived effectiveness of work with nursing facilities. The article concludes that sufficient resources, sufficient organisational autonomy, and a supportive political and social environment are key elements in achieving varying types of perceived effectiveness in the state LTCOPs. However, research is needed to extend this work to local ombudsman programmes. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-040726203 A |
| Classmark | IQ: QV: LHB: QLV: 5H: 7T |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
|
| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
| |
|