For some of our elderly family members who currently reside at our local nursing homes, the stay is a few weeks. For others, the stay may last a few months. For many, however, the nursing home has become their permanent residence. Some are there for a brief course of post-surgical rehabilitation following orthopedic injuries. Others are at the nursing home for a longer period. They are there because they are mentally or physically disabled, suffering from neurological diseases like Alzheimer's or Parkinson's or the physical effects of a paralyzing stroke. They are unable to independently perform the tasks that their daily lives require without risking their own safety.

Regardless of a nursing home resident's medical condition or length of stay, he or she is entitled to certain rights under Florida law. After years of widespread reports of horrendous living conditions in facilities throughout Florida, the Legislature studied the problem in the late 1970's. It enacted laws codified under Chapter 400 Part II of the Florida Statutes. This set of laws is generally known as the Florida Nursing Home Resident's Rights Act. The Legislature stated that its purpose was to "provide for the development, establishment, and enforcement of basic standards for: (1) the health, care, and treatment of persons in nursing homes and related health care facilities; and (2) the maintenance and operation of such institutions that will ensure safe, adequate, and appropriate care, treatment, and health of persons in such facilities."

Specifically, Florida law requires that each resident receive "adequate and appropriate health care and protective and support services". This means nursing homes must develop an individualized resident care plan for every patient of the facility. This resident care plan must give each person a high quality of care based upon nursing standards of treatment as delineated by the Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA). A resident is entitled to receive "social services, mental health services, planned recreational activities (if available) and therapeutic and rehabilitative services consistent with the resident care plan." Depending on an individual's condition, the resident care plan generally includes established nursing protocols designed for fall prevention, maintenance of skin integrity, and improvement of a resident's psycho/social well being.

Also, the law provides that each resident has "the right to be protected from mental and physical abuse". This does not simply encompass the obvious idea of prohibiting corporal punishment, but also includes the right not to be put into "involuntary seclusion" or to be subjected to "physical or chemical" restraints. As to restraints, the law does allow these measures if the nurses notify the physician of the need, and the physician appropriately determines such means are medically necessary for the safety of the resident (such as raising the bed rails to avoid falls out of bed).

Additionally, every person being treated in a nursing home has the right to choose his or her own personal physician and to obtain pharmaceutical supplies and services from his or her own provider. Each resident has the right to be adequately informed of his or her medical condition and proposed treatment, and to refuse medical care or treatment unless he or she is determined to be legally unable to provide informed consent.

Most importantly, each resident has a right to be treated courteously, fairly and with the fullest measure of dignity.