It is the purpose of this chapter to authorize the Department of Health and Human Services to impose intermediate sanctions in order to improve the quality of care in long-term care facilities and to establish programs to reward long-term care facilities that provide the highest quality care. These intermediate sanctions will also provide an alternative to taking action to close facilities, which may cause great distress to the residents of those facilities.   [PL 1987, c. 774, §4 (NEW); PL 2003, c. 689, Pt. B, §6 (REV).]