Friends of Residents in Long Term Care have enlisted a new ally in their fight for quality care for people living in nursing homes, rest homes and other long-term care facilities.

The group announced this morning that it has signed up Paula Wolf as a lobbyist for the 2008 legislative session.

No longer will critics be able to rail against the N.C. Division of Facility Services for its oversight of rest homes, mental health facilities or home care services.

That’s because state officials have changed the division’s name - to the N.C. Division of Health Service Regulation.

Robert Fitzgerald, the head of the division, said the new name more accurately reflects what the division does and will make it clearer to the public who to contact if they have concerns about care in North Carolina.

North Carolina's rest homes won't have their own Michelin Guide.

A bill that would create a state rating system for adult care homes moved out of the House Aging Committee today, but without including a proposed five-star rating guide, Thomas Goldsmith reports.

Representatives of the adult-care home industry, which owns and operates assisted living facilities and rest homes were still not happy, calling the bill "grossly unfair."

Lobbyist Lou Wilson said her industry favors public disclosure, but wants the rating system applied to industries, such as in-home care services, which also work with older North Carolinians and people with disabilities.

"We will work with the (House) appropriations committee to either put everybody in it or take us out," Wilson said.