nursing homes

The legislation, which unanimously passed the state Senate last month, would allow certified nursing assistants to become trained as “qualified medication aides.”

The vote was unanimous, 39-0. A similar bill in the House will soon be up for a vote. If signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis, it would take effect July 1.

The 19-0 vote by the Senate Fiscal Policy Committee moves the legislation to a vote by the full state Senate. The House will also vote on a matching bill.

A state Senate panel has approved a proposal that would allow trained certified nursing assistants to give medications to nursing home residents.

The personal needs allowance, created in 1972, was meant to cover anything a resident might need that its facility didn't provide, from a phone to clothes to a gift for a grandchild. In some states, it's still only $30.

The measure would allow CNAs to become “qualified medication aides” and free up registered nurses to provide other needed care to residents.

The bills would strip children of patients who die from neglect of the right to claim anything more than economic damages, tighten the rules around expert witnesses and exempt passive investors from liability.

Circuit Judge John J. Murphy III agreed with the defense that prosecutors had failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Jorge Carballo had acted with reckless disregard for human life or had demonstrated conscious indifference to his patients’ safety.

A judge has acquitted Jorge Carballo, administrator of Rehabilitation Center at Hollywood Hills, of causing the overheating deaths of nine patients after Hurricane Irma in 2017.

Prosecutors claim Jorge Carballo abandoned his patients, going home after the Rehabilitation Center at Hollywood Hills lost power to its air conditioner during the 2017 storm. Nine people died.