Performance Details

Department of Revenue - Long Term Care Ombudsman Office

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Mission

The mission of Alaska's Office of the Long-Term Care Ombudsman is to provide resident-centered advocacy designed to protect the health, safety, welfare and rights of Alaskan seniors, age 60 and over living in long-term care facilities.

Core Services

• Complaint investigations
• Develop and support the creation and maintenance of family and resident councils
• Ensure the needs, interests, and opinions of Alaskan seniors are conveyed to policy makers
• The Long Term Care Ombudsman program will actively advocate to protect the rights of seniors by educating care providers and the public through community outreach and training

Mission Results	Core Services
A: Seniors who reside in long term care settings will be protected from poor quality of care, environments and/or practices which jeopardize their safety, and from violations to their rights. Details > TARGET #1: 90% of all complaints received by the LTCO program are resolved to the satisfaction of the resident or their representative. TARGET #2: The LTCO program shall visit 100% of the skilled nursing facilities and senior licensed assisted living homes in the state at least once per year. TARGET #3: The LTCO program will make at least 400 visits to facilities annually. TARGET #4: The LTCO program will make quarterly visits to at least 30 facilities annually, targeting those facilities with the most complaints. TARGET #5: Annually, the LTCO program will analyze 100% of the complaints by facility in order to determine training or changes that could improve in facilities that need the most support.	A1: Complaint investigations Details > TARGET #1: The LTCO program will retain 6 staff and a working cadre of at least 60 volunteers in order to work towards being able to visit facilities on a quarterly basis. TARGET #2: The LTCO will recruit and train at least 20 new volunteers annually. TARGET #3: The LTCO program will meet with 15 resident and family councils at least once a year to explain the role of the OLTCO and offer support. A2: Develop and support the creation and maintenance of family and resident councils Details > TARGET #1: Support the development and strengthening of family and resident councils at all nursing homes, especially those with more than 20 residents, and State Pioneer Homes to ensure these councils are an effective voice for elderly LTC residents
Mission Results	Core Services
B: The rights, interests, and well-being of Alaskan seniors, age 60 and older, will be promoted and protected. Details > TARGET #1: The LTCO program shall educate the community about long term care, the LTCO program and related issues such as residents" rights at a minimum of four community outreach or education events annually. TARGET #2: The LTCO program will provide information and referrals to at least 200 callers annually.	B1: Ensure the needs, interests, and opinions of Alaskan seniors are conveyed to policy makers Details > TARGET #1: Annually, the LTCO program will analyze 100% of complaints to determine systems changes that could improve care in long term care facilities. B2: The Long Term Care Ombudsman program will actively advocate to protect the rights of seniors by educating care providers and the public through community outreach and training Details > TARGET #1: The LTCO program will provide consultation to at least 40 facilities each year. TARGET #2: The LTCO program will conduct training at least three times per year to long term care providers regarding resident rights, the role of the LTCO, and LTCO assistance available to care providers.

Performance Detail

A: Result -Seniors who reside in long term care settings will be protected from poor quality of care, environments and/or practices which jeopardize their safety, and from violations to their rights.

Target #1: 90% of all complaints received by the LTCO program are resolved to the satisfaction of the resident or their representative. Complaints Resolved to Satisfaction or Partial Satisfaction of Complainant Federal Fiscal Year Complaints Received % Resolved FFY 2023 355 80% FFY 2022 307 80% FFY 2021 292 82% FFY 2020 374 80% Analysis of results and challenges: During FFY2023, this target was nearly met. The Long Term Care Ombudsman Office approaches resolutions to complaints in a resident directed manner. The resident determines if they are satisfied with the outcome of the complaint. While the Long Term Care Ombudsman Office strives for an outcome of 90 percent resident satisfaction of all complaints, there are other factors such as facility policies, funding, medical concerns, or guardianship that may prevent an outcome that the resident hopes to obtain. For FFY2023, 80 percent of all complaints received by the Long Term Care Ombudsman Office were resolved to the satisfaction of the resident or their representative. The Long Term Care Ombudsman Office investigated nearly 50 more complaints in FFY2023 than in FFY2024. The top 5 complaints for FFY2023 centered around the quality of care, evictions, residents` rights and choices, financial exploitation, and legal guardianship. Who filed complaints to the Long Term Care Ombudsman Office in FFY2023: 48 percent of complaints received were from residents in facilities; 17 percent of complaints were reported by resident representatives, or family members; 15 percent of complaints received were initiated by facility staff, and all other complaints came from other agencies, resident councils, friends of residents and concerned citizens of the community. Target Last Modified: 11/02/2024

Target #2: The LTCO program shall visit 100% of the skilled nursing facilities and senior licensed assisted living homes in the state at least once per year. Visits to Skilled Nursing and Assisted Living Homes Federal Fiscal Year # Nursing Homes Visited % Nursing Homes Visited # Asstd Lvg Hms Visited % Asstd Lvg Hms Visited FFY 2023 20 100% 287 100% FFY 2022 20 100% 276 92% FFY 2021 20 100% 165 59% FFY 2020 17 85% 194 65% Analysis of results and challenges: For FFY2023, the Long Term Care Ombudsman team completed 827 unannounced visits to long-term care facilities. During this rating year, the Long Term Care Ombudsman program visited all 20 skilled nursing facilities and all 287 assisted living homes that house seniors. There were 84 total visits to Skilled Nursing Facilities in FFY2023. All Skilled Nursing Facilities had at least 1 visit during FFY2023, with most having 2 or more visits. This goal was met for Skilled Nursing Facilities visitations. There were 287 Assisted Living Facilities for seniors in Alaska in FFY2023. The Long Term Care Ombudsman team visited all these homes with most of these homes having more than 1 visit. The team made a total of 743 visits to Assisted Living Homes. The Long Term Care Ombudsman team prioritized facility visits to Assisted Living Homes by complaint related concerns initiated by residents or by reviewing critical incident reports highlighting concerns in an Assisted Living Facility. The Long Term Care Ombudsman team continues to work cooperatively with residential licensing to track the opening of new assisted living homes to ensure that facility visits were completed to all the homes. The Long Term Care Ombudsman team also works with Adult Protective Services and Residential Licensing on home closures to ensure residents are transitioned safety into new homes. The goal was met for Assisted Living Homes. Target Last Modified: 11/13/2024

Target #3: The LTCO program will make at least 400 visits to facilities annually. Quality of Care Complaints Federal Fiscal Year # of Facility Visits FFY 2023 827 FFY 2022 620 FFY 2021 269 FFY 2020 403 Analysis of results and challenges: This target was met in FFY2023. The Long Term Care Ombudsman team visited a total of 827 facilities during FFY2023. The team visited 100 percent of Skilled Nursing Facilities and 100 percent of Assisted Living Homes. The Long Term Care Ombudsman volunteers play a key role in helping the team complete in-person facility visits. The Long Term Care Ombudsman team hired a temporary staff member which also assisted the program in completing more facility visits. Target Last Modified: 11/04/2024

Target #4: The LTCO program will make quarterly visits to at least 30 facilities annually, targeting those facilities with the most complaints. Number of Facilities that Received at Least One Visit Per Quarter Federal Fiscal Year # of Facilities Visited FFY 2023 75 FFY 2022 22 FFY 2021 0 FFY 2020 0 Analysis of results and challenges: With the help of one full time temporary staff person and volunteers, this target was exceeded in FFY2023. 75 facilities received quarterly visits. The team made routine visits to facilities with the most complaints and those with more serious critical incident reports. Target Last Modified: 11/13/2024

Target #5: Annually, the LTCO program will analyze 100% of the complaints by facility in order to determine training or changes that could improve in facilities that need the most support. Complaints Year Complaints Analyzed Percentage 2023 355 355 100% 2022 307 307 100% 2021 292 292 100% 2020 374 374 100% Analysis of results and challenges: The number of complaints received to the Long Term Care program during FFY2023 increased from last year. 355 resident complaints (100 percent of complaints received) were investigated and analyzed by the program in FFY2023. The Long Term Care Ombudsman Office works to resolve complaints on behalf of residents living in long-term care facilities. The Older Americans Act requires Ombudsmen to collect and analyze data relating to complaints and conditions in long term care facilities for the purpose of identifying and resolving significant problems. The Ombudsmen also work to verify complaints and resolve complaints according to the wishes of the residents. Based on the FFY2023 data analyzed, the program identified the top five complaints in assisted living homes as residents` rights concerns, systems and other issues, quality of care issues, admission, discharge and eviction and concerns about financial exploitation. These are similar to FFY2022 complaints in assisted living homes. The top five complaints identified for skilled nursing facilities were quality of care issues, admission, discharge and evictions, residents` rights, systems, and other issues and financial and exploitation. The Long Term Care Ombudsman Office continues to provide training to facility staff on residents` rights as well as the role of the Long Term Care Ombudsman program. Target Last Modified: 11/02/2024

A1: Core Service - Complaint investigations

Target #1: The LTCO program will retain 6 staff and a working cadre of at least 60 volunteers in order to work towards being able to visit facilities on a quarterly basis. Number of LTCO Staff and Volunteers Federal Fiscal Year # of Staff # of Volunteers FFY 2023 7 20 FFY 2022 7 25 FFY 2021 7 21 FFY 2020 6 68 Analysis of results and challenges: The goal of retaining six staff was met in FFY2023. The program continues to retain six permanent full-time staff. The program also retained a temporary full-time staff using one-time COVID funding from the Administration for Community Living (ACL) to assist with the activities of the Long Term Care Ombudsman program which included completing facility visits. However, the goal of retaining 60 volunteers was not met. Recruiting and retaining volunteers continues to be a challenge for the program. As noted in data from previous years, the Long Term Care Ombudsman program experienced a mass departure of trained volunteers during COVID 19. Over 69 percent of the volunteers stepped down from volunteering since many of the volunteers were seniors who were in the high-risk category for COVID 19. Not only did the program experience the loss of volunteers, but the program saw a huge decrease in the number of volunteer hours as well. With that said, the program is slowly trying to rebuild the volunteer base. During the annual strategic planning meeting, the program highlighted a recruitment plan that focused on communities where there is a need for volunteers. The program has expanded populations to target recruitment efforts such as the military communities, veterans, college students, teachers as well as retirees. The program has offered more flexible training classes outside of the normal work hours including an on-line self-study curriculum. Simultaneously, the program is working on retention strategies to recognize, appreciate and retain current volunteers. In FFY2023, the program worked with an amazing core of 20 volunteers, who donated over 279 volunteer hours. Target Last Modified: 11/02/2024

Target #2: The LTCO will recruit and train at least 20 new volunteers annually. Number of Volunteers Trained Federal Fiscal Year # of Volunteers Trained FFY 2023 8 FFY 2022 4 FFY 2021 4 FFY 2020 23 Analysis of results and challenges: This goal was not met in FFY2023. The Long Term Care Ombudsman program recruited eight new volunteers during FFY2023. The program recognizes that the work of an Ombudsman representative can be overwhelming. Volunteers are asked to commit to visiting at least three facilities per month. The Long Term Care Ombudsman program requires volunteers to submit reports about their facility visits. The Ombudsman representative work is characterized by a high level of responsibility. The program continues to slowly rebuild the volunteer base. The volunteer plan is to recruit and train at least five new volunteers quarterly. There is a focus on diversifying the volunteer base to include college students, military spouses, and other populations that have not been reached out to. New volunteers go through an initial 36 hours of training, job shadowing and mentoring. The program hosts monthly meetings and trainings for current volunteers to assist current volunteers with maintaining their certification. The Deputy Ombudsman and Long Term Care Ombudsman team continues to provide technical assistance to all the amazing volunteers. Once certified as a volunteer, the volunteer receives a great amount of support from the Long Term Care Ombudsman team members. The program continues to increase recruitment efforts by posting on social media and placing advertisements in the Senior Voice and other news media outlets. The team posts flyers in various community agencies, coffee shops and libraries. The program has reached out to senior centers across Alaska. The program communicates volunteer needs during community presentations at community resource fairs and other events. The Long Term Care Ombudsman Office currently keeps track of inactive volunteers in hopes that they will resume their volunteerism when they are ready. Target Last Modified: 11/02/2024

Target #3: The LTCO program will meet with 15 resident and family councils at least once a year to explain the role of the OLTCO and offer support. Number of Contacts with Resident or Family Councils Federal Fiscal Year # Contact with Councils FFY 2023 28 FFY 2022 14 FFY 2021 15 FFY 2020 5 Analysis of results and challenges: During FFY2023, the Long Term Care Ombudsman program attended and participated in 28 resident council meetings. This goal was exceeded. Part of the program priorities were to increase engagement with resident councils. Long Term Care Ombudsmen are frequently invited to be guest speakers at Resident Council meetings to present on Residents Rights or to help address concerns by residents. Resident councils can play a crucial role in voicing concerns and helping to resolve critical issues within facilities. The Long Term Care Ombudsman program also has a resident council toolkit that provides facilities with guidance to starting and maintaining a resident council. Target Last Modified: 10/10/2024

A2: Core Service - Develop and support the creation and maintenance of family and resident councils

Target #1: Support the development and strengthening of family and resident councils at all nursing homes, especially those with more than 20 residents, and State Pioneer Homes to ensure these councils are an effective voice for elderly LTC residents Number of Contacts with Resident or Family Councils Year # of Contacts 2023 28 2022 14 2021 15 2020 5 Analysis of results and challenges: This goal was met. The Long Term Care Ombudsman program continues to assist in strengthening resident and family councils and to ensure that long-term care residents are empowered to voice their concerns to their facility. The program works with new facilities that have opened or are in the process of developing resident councils. The Long Term Care Ombudsman Office has been able to provide resources and guidance. The Long Term Care Ombudsman Office has shared resident council toolkit with new facilities. All facilities with resident councils have a copy of the Long Term Care Ombudsman resident council toolkit. The toolkit can be found on the Long Term Care Ombudsman Office website along with two YouTube videos explaining what a resident council is and why is it important for facilities to establish a resident council. Facilities appreciate these resources from the Long Term Care Ombudsman program. Target Last Modified: 11/04/2024

B: Result -The rights, interests, and well-being of Alaskan seniors, age 60 and older, will be promoted and protected.

Target #1: The LTCO program shall educate the community about long term care, the LTCO program and related issues such as residents" rights at a minimum of four community outreach or education events annually. Number of Community Outreach or Education Events Federal Fiscal Year # of Events FFY 2023 30 FFY 2022 24 FFY 2021 23 FFY 2020 6 Analysis of results and challenges: In FFY2023, the Long Term Care Ombudsman Office participated in 30 community outreach and educational events to educate the community about the Long Term Care Ombudsman program. Additionally, these events help recruit potential volunteers. This target goal was met for FFY2023. Target Last Modified: 11/04/2024

Target #2: The LTCO program will provide information and referrals to at least 200 callers annually. Number of Individuals Provided with Information and Referrals Federal Fiscal Year # of Individuals FFY 2023 1244 FFY 2022 1257 FFY 2021 786 FFY 2020 545 Analysis of results and challenges: In FFY2023, the Long Term Care Ombudsman Office provided information, assistance, and referrals to 1244 individuals who reached out for assistance. This number exceeded the targeted goal. Like last year, the Long Term Care Ombudsman program saw an increase in the number of family members, community members or other service providers reaching out to inquire about issues concerning loved ones in long-term care facilities or ask about the rights of residents in long term care facilities. Members of the public request information about long term care facilities in their communities, the Long Term Care Ombudsman Office provides a list of facilities in their communities. The Long Term Care Ombudsman Office also has a great resource available on how to choose a long-term care facility. This resource has been helpful to many community members who are looking for facilities for their loved ones. Target Last Modified: 11/02/2024

B1: Core Service - Ensure the needs, interests, and opinions of Alaskan seniors are conveyed to policy makers

Target #1: Annually, the LTCO program will analyze 100% of complaints to determine systems changes that could improve care in long term care facilities. Complaints Year Complaints 2023 355 2022 307 2021 292 2020 374 Analysis of results and challenges: During FFY2023, the Long Term Care Ombudsman program investigated and analyzed 355 complaints (100 percent). The Long Term Care Ombudsman Office highlights top complaints and shares this information with partner agencies, facility administrators and the public. The program uses this information when participating in various advocacy meetings and when considering the type of trainings to offer to long-term care facilities. Target Last Modified: 10/10/2024

B2: Core Service - The Long Term Care Ombudsman program will actively advocate to protect the rights of seniors by educating care providers and the public through community outreach and training

Target #1: The LTCO program will provide consultation to at least 40 facilities each year. Number of Consultations Provided to Long Term Care Facilities Federal Fiscal Year # of Consultations FFY 2023 444 FFY 2022 503 FFY 2021 732 FFY 2020 469 Analysis of results and challenges: This target was met. In FFY2023, the Long Term Care Ombudsman Office provided 444 facilities information, assistance, and consultation to facility staff in long-term care facilities. The facility staff frequently reached out to ask for assistance in problem solving a situation that they are facing with a resident or a residents family member or guardian. There are a host of reasons why facility staff reach out, such as inquiring about community trainings relating to dementia, residents` rights, or asking specific questions about guardianship issues or inquiring about specific public services. Facility staff reach out to request the Long Term Care Ombudsman Office participation in care planning meetings. They also reach out for assistance in contacting agencies who are working on application renewals or in needing help finding funding for medications for residents. Target Last Modified: 10/10/2024

Target #2: The LTCO program will conduct training at least three times per year to long term care providers regarding resident rights, the role of the LTCO, and LTCO assistance available to care providers. Number of Trainings Provided to Long Term Care Facility Staff Federal Fiscal Year # of Trainings FFY 2023 4 FFY 2022 4 FFY 2021 8 FFY 2020 1 Analysis of results and challenges: This target for FFY2023 was met. In FFY2023, the Long Term Care Ombudsman Office provided trainings to long-term care facility on residents` rights, the role of the Long Term Care Ombudsman, and facility-initiated discharges. Target Last Modified: 10/10/2024

Last refreshed: 05/16/2025 12:00 pm