Patricia Hunter, Washington State Long‑Term Care Ombudsman, told the Joint Legislative Executive Committee on Planning for Aging and Disability Issues that staffing shortages and the growth of complex resident needs are creating harm in licensed care homes.

Hunter, who leads a certified ombudsman program operated by the MultiService Center, said the state has nearly 89,000 licensed resident beds and that adult family homes have grown rapidly during her tenure. She said ombudsmen are seeing rising resident complexity, increasing turnover and persistent understaffing that “is a real problem where lives are harmed and some lost.”

Why it matters: The ombudsman described multiple trends that affect resident safety and access to care: underqualified staffing or high turnover; increased family use of monitoring technology after COVID with unclear data ownership and security; and the expansion of private‑equity and real‑estate investment trust ownership of facilities, which the ombudsman and advocates say can siphon funds away from care and staffing.

Supporting details: Hunter said staff shortages affect kitchen and housekeeping roles as well as direct care and urged wages and training improvements. She described the post‑COVID rise in family monitoring—“nanny cams, Alexa, and other devices”—and asked who owns and secures such data and whether residents on Medicaid have equal access to supportive technology.

On ownership, Hunter said critics report that some corporate owners “siphon public funds through related party structures” and that profit pressures can lower food, maintenance and staffing budgets while corporations expand acquisitions. She also raised concerns about illegal or unsafe discharges and hospital use to bypass legal discharge processes. Hunter highlighted a recent partial funding award to the Office of Civil Legal Aid for legal counsel to residents facing eviction; private‑pay residents still must pay their own legal costs.

Discussion vs. next steps: Hunter said the ombudsman office will continue to work with DSHS in current rulemaking and urged legislators to consider protections around technology, ownership transparency and resident legal supports.

Ending note: Hunter thanked JLAC for its education and advocacy role; she flagged privacy, training, wages and corporate ownership as ongoing priorities for long‑term care oversight.