Nursing Home Incident Reporting Manual Still Under Review

The Nursing Home Incident Reporting Manual first issued in 2011, and revised in June 2012, has undergone a re-write in an attempt to better guide providers on what constitutes a reportable incident to Department of Health (DOH). The revisions to the manual were completed in late 2015 by a workgroup consisting of DOH staff and provider association staff including Leading Age New York. The manual has been reviewed by administrative staff at the Division of Nursing Homes and ICF/IID Surveillance, and has been forwarded to the Office of Health Systems Management where it will undergo legal review. No timetable has been set as to when the review is to be completed.

In 2015, DOH opened 11,446 complaint cases. 60 percent were facility reported. Of the complaints received, 4082 required an onsite investigation and in 10.4 percent of those cases, a Statement of Deficiency (SOD) was issued. 

The department has stated on a number of occasions that it believes that nursing homes may be over reporting and is hopeful that the manual revision will address that concern. One major area where the manual will attempt to clarify the reporting requirement is related to the reporting of resident to resident abuse. 

Contact: Elliott Frost, efrost@leadingageny.org, 518-867-8832