Reports Examine Residential Care Facilities

Two reports, prepared by RTI International and released last year, examine the effects of residential care facilities (RCFs) on residents’ economic and care needs.

“Do Services and Staffing in Residential Care Facilities Vary with Resident Needs?”, published in July, looks at whether RCFs are adequately staffed and prepared to meet the often acute care needs of their residents.

The researchers found that RCFs in which residents have greater care needs tend to offer more services.

“Medicaid in Residential Care,” a report published in September, examines the differences between RCFs that participate in Medicaid and those that do not.

The researchers noted numerous physical differences between the facilities. For example, Medicaid RCFs tended to be smaller, and also offered less privacy than non-Medicaid facilities.

They also noted that direct-care staffing hours per resident per day did not vary significantly between Medicaid and non-Medicaid facilities.

Both reports were prepared for the U.S. Health and Human Services’ Office of Disability, Aging and Long-Term Care Policy.

Both relied on data from the 2010 National Survey of Residential Care Facilities.

— by Matthew Ozga