abby

please provide feedback on this discussion post

The LTC industry requires constant management of a wide variety of staff. Proper management requires an administrator to have well rounded knowledge of legal and regulatory employment laws. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 is one of the major pieces of legislation that outlines HR standards for workplaces, prohibiting discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, and national origin (EEOC, 2023). This law applies to all employment entities, and this was especially pertinent for hospitals and healthcare facilities that received federal funding, as lack of compliance would not allow them to receive funds (DiAntonio, 2017). This law also led to the desegregation of hospitals and serves as the baseline standard for all healthcare HR regulatory policies (DiAntonio, 2017).

To ensure workplace safety and high quality of standards, CMS conducts surveys to track hospital and healthcare facility to measure compliance (CMS, 2023). These surveys are distributed by States to LTC facilities, like SNF and NF, to ensure compliance with regulations specific to that site (CMS, 2023).

The National Labor Relations Act of 1935, also known as the Wagner Act, was critical to protecting the rights of employees and strengthening their rights to collectively bargain, unionize, or strike (Showalter, 2020). This past August and September, nursing home staff at 11 Infinity Nursing Homes in the Chicago area went on strike to protest low wages, staffing shortages, and decrepit buildings with lack of maintenance (Marselas, 2023). Infinity healthcare management was able to come to a collective bargaining agreement with SEIU Healthcare, the union representing the nursing home staff, effectively avoiding the full 11-day strike (Asplund, 2023). Labor laws set the standard for protecting staff so they can effectively, and safety carry out their responsibilities of looking after and caring for vulnerable adults.