Serious flaws in the U.S. nursing home system threaten the health and safety of millions of residents, and change is urgently needed Report The prestigious National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine released on Wednesday.

“Nursing home care in America is broken,” David Grabowski, a professor at Harvard Medical School and a member of the Commission on Quality of Nursing Home Care, a federally chartered organization, said in a briefing.

More than 150,000 nursing home residents and more than 2,300 staff members during the COVID-19 pandemic die from the viruswhich highlights the staffing, quality and funding challenges facing the industry.

“Sadly, we’ve all seen through social media and the news what happened in nursing homes before COVID and certainly what happened during COVID,” committee chair Betty Ferrer said at the briefing.

In its 600-page report, the 17-member group called for fixing “ineffective” and “unsustainable” systems by changing the way nursing home care is provided, monitored and financed.

“The time to act is now,” said Ferrer, director of nursing research and education at City of Hope Medical Center in Duarte, California.

The committee recommends initiatives such as:

• Incorporate nursing homes into emergency preparedness plans;
• Improve resident care by providing smaller home-style settings;
• Encourage operators to coordinate care through the adoption of electronic health records;
• Develop national standards for worker education and staffing;
• raise wages and benefits;
• changing long-term care financing models; and
• Strengthen federal oversight.

The report coincides with President Joe Biden’s push to transform the nursing home industry.Biden provides a slate He laid out policies in his State of the Union address in February, including minimum staffing requirements and stricter enforcement of federal rules designed to promote safety and quality.

“We now have this rare opportunity to really change the staffing of this country, but it will require political will,” Grabowski said.

Katie Smith Sloan, chief executive of LeadingAge, which represents more than 5,000 nonprofit providers, said the National Academy of Sciences report was “a wake-up call for policymakers.”

“Decades of underfunding have left America’s nursing home system in dire need of an overhaul. As our nation ages rapidly, millions of older Americans will need safe, high-quality care. It’s time to act to ensure they can access and afford it affordable nursing home care,” Smith Sloan said in a statement. Press Releases.