ASSISTED LIVING FACILITIES (con’t)
Care Level: Limited Nursing Services
(LNS) License
An assisted living facility with a LNS license
provides the basic services of an assisted
living facility with a standard license as well as
additional, specific nursing services.
Services include:
• Nursing assessments
• Care & application of routine dressings
• Care of casts, braces and splints
• Admin. & regulation of portable oxygen
• Catheter, colostomy and ileostomy care and
maintenance
• Application of cold or heat treatments, passive
range of motion exercises, ear and eye
irrigations and other services
Resident’s Care Managed
An ALF is required to have enough qualified
staff to provide resident supervision and
to provide or arrange for scheduled and
unscheduled resident services. An ALF is not
required to have a nurse on staff. The ALF
staff will manage the resident’s care, including
ongoing assessments of the resident’s needs
and health monitoring. The ALF may employ or
contract with a nurse to take vital signs (blood
pressure, pulse, respiration and temperature),
manage pill organizers and give medications,
give prepackaged enemas from a doctor’s order
and keep progress notes.
The ALF staff will coordinate and assist
the resident to gain access to needed medical
services, as well as mental health, social,
educational and other services.
A resident cannot be bedridden, cannot
require 24-hour nursing supervision and
cannot have stage 3 or 4 pressure sores.
The resident can contract with a third party,
such as a home health agency or a nurse registry,
to provide nursing and other medical services.
Licensing & Employee Screening
The administrator has to be screened
through FDLE and FBI. Employees providing
personal care are screened through FDLE.
ALFs are licensed and inspected every
two years by the State of Florida’s Agency for
Health Care Administration (AHCA). The
license should be conspicuously posted. ALFs
that do not comply with regulations will be
given a deficiency report that gives the total
number of deficiencies cited.
Financial Concerns
Residency in an ALF can be paid by:
• Private funds
• Long Term Care Insurance policy
• Optional State Supplementation (if the resident
is eligible), in addition to the person’s
existing monthly income
• Medicaid Assistive Care Services (if both the
resident and the ALF are eligible)
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