Federal regulations mandate that all nursing homes have a medical director responsible for overseeing resident medical care and ensuring compliance with care policies. A new study published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society reveals critical findings about the presence and role of medical directors in U.S. nursing homes. The study, “Medical Director Presence and Time in U.S. Nursing Homes, 2017–2023,” was conducted by researchers from the Long Term Care Community Coalition (LTCCC), the University of California, San Francisco, and the California Association of Long Term Care Medicine. The key findings of the study were:
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Lack of Medical Director Presence: More than a third (36.1%) of U.S. nursing homes reported zero medical director time in the first quarter of 2023, raising serious concerns about the oversight of resident care in these facilities.
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Limited Time Spent in Facilities: Among nursing homes that reported having a medical director, the average time spent on-site was just 36 minutes per day, or 4.2 hours per week. This equates to less than one minute of medical director time per resident day.
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Ownership Discrepancies: The study found significant differences based on ownership type. For-profit nursing homes were less likely to report any medical director time (61.4%) compared to non-profit (71.3%) and government-owned (66.5%) facilities.
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State Variations: There was considerable variation in medical director presence across states, with some states reporting as low as 45% of nursing homes having any medical director time.
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