What Homes Are Supposed to Do, and Who's Supposed to Run Them
The Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare defines personal-care homes as residences that provide "shelter, meals, supervision and assistance" to between four and several hundred people. The term assisted living is commonly used to describe some of these homes.
Residents typically are elderly, disabled, or otherwise unable to care for themselves - but not infirm enough to need a nursing home or medical care.
Most personal-care are privately owned, but some are operated by local governments or nonprofit agencies. Typical services include assistance with eating and drinking, getting out of bed, bathing and personal hygiene, taking medicine, and managing finances.
A home administrator must be a registered nurse, be a licensed practical nurse with one year of related work experience, have an associate degree, or have 60 college credit hours.
For a home serving eight or fewer residents, an administrator can have a GED or high school diploma and two years of human-services experience.
The homes are overseen through annual inspections and complaint investigations by the welfare department for compliance with health, safety and fire0prevention rules. The rules are on the Web at
www.pacode.com/secure/data/055/
chapter2600/chap2600toc.html
