The state Senate is making another try at policing assisted living facilities that abuse or neglect their residents. The Senate Committee on Children, Families and Elder Affairs on Tuesday unanimously passed a bill that would tighten the rules for ALFs and punish those that fall short.
Last year, a similar measure passed the Senate, but the House didn't take it up. So far this year, there’s no House companion bill again.
Senator Eleanor Sobel, a Hollywood Democrat and the committee chair, said reform is needed now.
"In the interests of our seniors, we cannot afford to stand by and do nothing, as we did last year when the ALF reform bill was killed", said Sobel. "We did something in the Senate. The House did not. And nothing happened."
The reform efforts followed a 2011 Miami Herald series that found an average of one ALF resident per month dying from abuse or neglect by facility staff.