Chapter 2 - The Right to Participate in Their Care

Every resident in a long-term care community has a right to participate in their care. With person-centered care becoming the standard level of care in the United States, a resident’s right to participate in his or her healthcare decisions has become the goal for all aspects of a resident’s care. However, in the past, a resident’s care had been dictated using the “medical model”; this allowed a medical team to make decisions that they felt were in the best interest of the resident, even if the resident did not agree. This is a stark contrast to “person-centered” care which allows the resident to be the primary decision maker regarding their own care. While there are many ways a community can ensure that residents can participate in their care, the following list shows the areas that I have found to be vital for the person-centered care model and where I often found related to resident complaints.

A care plan is a meeting required under Federal Law for skilled communities that accept Medicare and Medicaid: every three months the staff meet to come up with a plan of care for that resident. The staff at a skilled care community have 14 days to do an initial assessment of the resident; the first care plan meeting should be scheduled within 7 days of that initial assessment. Care plan meetings are required every three months or whenever there is a significant change in a resident condition.

Residents have a right to participate in their care plan. A care plan meeting generally includes the following:

•The Care Plan Coordinator (sometimes called