Nursing Homes Cited for Violations

As many of you know, I represent people who have been injured by abuse or neglect in nursing homes. Some nursing homes provide superior care and really care about their residents. Others provide poor care, are understaffed, and don't adequately protect residents from actual harm. I am way too familiar with these nursing homes. Even the "good" nursing homes will have isolated incidents where, for example. an employee makes a poor decision and injures a resident. A new report states that over 90% of nursing homes were cited for violating federal health and safety standards. The state of the nursing home industry is something that a lot of people don't pay attention to until it affects them. They have the view that personal injury attorneys are worthless scum benefitting from the bad luck of others. I hope that what I'm doing holds facilities responsible for their actions and ultimately improves the care that the elderly receive in these nursing homes. Here's the article:

Violations Reported at 94% of Nursing Homes
By ROBERT PEAR
Published: September 29, 2008

WASHINGTON — More than 90 percent of nursing homes were cited for violations of federal health and safety standards last year, and for-profit homes were more likely to have problems than other types of nursing homes, federal investigators say in a report issued on Monday.

About 17 percent of nursing homes had deficiencies that caused “actual harm or immediate jeopardy” to patients, said the report, by Daniel R. Levinson, the inspector general of the Department of Health and Human Services.

Problems included infected bedsores, medication mix-ups, poor nutrition, and abuse and neglect of patients.

Inspectors received 37,150 complaints about conditions in nursing homes last year, and they substantiated 39 percent of them, the report said. About one-fifth of the complaints verified by federal and state authorities involved the abuse or neglect of patients.

About two-thirds of nursing homes are owned by for-profit companies, while 27 percent are owned by nonprofit organizations and 6 percent by government entities, the report said. The inspector general said 94 percent of for-profit nursing homes were cited for deficiencies last year, compared with 88 percent of nonprofit homes and 91 percent of government homes.

“For-profit nursing homes had a higher average number of deficiencies than the other types of nursing homes,” Mr. Levinson said. “In 2007, for-profit nursing homes averaged 7.6 deficiencies per home, while not-for-profit and government homes averaged 5.7 and 6.3, respectively.”

On Monday, Mr. Levinson issued a compliance guide for nursing homes that says some homes “have systematically failed to provide staff in sufficient numbers and with appropriate clinical expertise to serve their residents.”

Read the rest of the article here.