nursing home

The amended version of the bill reduces -- but does not eliminate -- the care that residents must get from certified nursing assistants. Those nursing hours would drop from 2 1/2 to 2 hours a day.

A bill being considered by legislators would cut the required time that a nurse or certified nursing assistant spends with a patient in a long-term care facility from 3.6 hours to one hour. It would also permit nonmedical staff to replace CNAs for 2.5 hours every day.

The AARP’s state director Jeff Johnson spoke to WMFE’s Joe Byrnes about nursing homes and long term care facilities, and other issues that could affect seniors this session.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced an initiative to increase access to at-home COVID testing, delivering about a million self-administered units, first to nursing homes and then to senior centers.

Power outages that followed Hurricane Irma affected 28,000 residents of Florida's nursing homes — and led to a 25% increase in deaths a week after the storm made landfall in September 2017.

The Senate Judiciary Committee backed a proposal that would help shield health providers from lawsuits until June 1, 2023.

Officials said the infusion of money would help nursing homes grappling with worker shortages and reduced occupancy during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Certified nurse assistants at a local nursing home used the help of a union, and elected officials, to voice support for better work conditions.

As COVID-19 cases increase again in Florida, 42 percent of the state’s nursing-home workers had been fully vaccinated as of last month, a new report by AARP shows. The 42 percent vaccination rate placed Florida second from last in the percentage of nursing-home workers vaccinated as of June 20 and well behind the national average of 56 percent, the report by the senior-advocacy group said.

Seniors, their families and states are eager to keep older Americans in their homes and out of nursing homes, but those efforts are often thwarted by worker shortages and low pay.

At nursing homes across Florida, COVID-19 cases are rising. The country's first Caribbean museum's global launch party. Plus, celebrating Caribbean films with the Third Horizon Film Festival.

This post will be updated today, Monday, May 24, and through the week with the latest information on COVID-19 in South Florida.