In a report scheduled for release today, the Congressional Government Accountability Office (GAO) reveals a widespread “understatement of deficiencies,” that include malnutrition, severe bedsores, overuse of prescription medications, and nursing home resident abuse in the nation’s nursing home inspection reports.  The report states that nursing home inspectors routinely ignore or minimize problems that pose serious, immediate patient threats.

Facilities are generally inspected once yearly by state employees who work under contract with the federal government.  Federal officials attempt to validate state inspector work by joining them on visits or conducting follow-ups.  It was in a follow-up that the GAO discovered the state missed at least one serious deficiency in 15 percent of all inspections.  Worse, in nine states—Alabama, Arizona, Missouri, New Mexico, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, and Wyoming—inspectors missed serious problems in over 25 percent from 2002 to 2007. (more…)

A recent study has shed new light on the frequency of depression among nursing home patients.  The study - which involved 272 elderly patients with an average age of 81— looked at how often those patients reported feeling depressed and were prescribed antidepressants at both a long-term care facility and through a home-care agency.  The research revealed that patients in a nursing home setting are more likely to be prescribed antidepressants and to self-report depression as compared to those patients being treated in a home-health care setting.  Jodi Shapuras and Lindsay Egan, undergraduate students in the social work program at ISU, conducted the research at their internships as part of a senior-level field practicum class.  Shapuras and Egan said they weren’t surprised by their findings.

“We are both interested in working with the elderly population in our careers, so we conducted this research to get a better feel for the prevalence of depression in those who need some level of outside care,” said Shapuras of Mitchell, Indiana.  “As social workers, it is important to understand the mental health issues, such as depression, within the different care settings.  We actually hypothesized that the long-term care patients would utilize antidepressants more and would self-report depression more,” said Egan of Terre Haute, Indiana. “When an individual moves to a long-term care facility, they undergo a tremendous amount of changes.  They are no longer able to live independently and are relying on others for care and this greatly affects how they feel about themselves and the world around them.” (more…)

Nursing home abuse, though despicable, is hardly uncommon. Although laws vary by state, most states do have laws—which include criminal penalties—in place to protect senior citizens from elder abuse; nursing homes are not exempt from these laws.

Unfortunately, nursing home abuse tends to be underreported because individual homes do not take elder abuse seriously and residents fear embarrassment, injury, even incapacitation for speaking up.  As with any abuse, the only way to prevent more instances is to stop it immediately as soon as abuse is suspected. (more…)

Families in need of nursing care for a loved one will now have easier access to a list of the most troubled nursing homes in the country, thanks new information being added to a nursing home website developed by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.   Consumer groups are cheering the move, and say that the site - Nursing Home Compare - is now the most complete national site available for finding specifics on nursing homes and long-term care facilities.

Nursing home abuse is one of the most serious problems facing this country’s elderly.  Though it concedes that the true number is probably much higher, The National Center on Elder Abuse estimates at least one in 20 nursing home patients has been the victim of abuse. According to the National Center’s study, 57% of nurses’ aides working in long-term care facilities admitted to having witnessed, and even participating in, acts of abuse. The report sites systemic problems within the nursing home industry, like inadequate pay for workers and chronic understaffing, as contributing to the epidemic of abuse. There are nearly 1.4 million Americans living in nursing homes right now, and that number is expected to more than double in the next decade. As it does, advocates for the elderly and disabled fear that incidences of abuse will continue to climb as well. (more…)

Nursing home negligence by Connecticut’s largest nursing home chain was the result of fraud committed by a Haven Healthcare official.  Those claims are made in a wrong death lawsuit filed by the family of Robert Wininger, a resident of one of Haven Healthcare’s nursing homes who the lawsuit claims died as a result of the nursing home negligence.  The suit claims  misappropriation of Haven funds by Chief Executive Officer Raymond Termini contributed to “deplorable conditions” at Connecticut’s largest nursing home chain.

The family is also seeking permission to sue the state departments of public health and social services and Nancy Shaffer, the state’s long-term care ombudsman, for failing to investigate and act on complaints lodged by Wininger’s family.

Wininger was a patient at Haven homes for nearly 2 1/2 years when he was rushed from Haven Health Center of Norwich to Backus Hospital on June 5, 2007 after his wife found him in excruciating pain and his legs gangrenous and in early rigor mortis, allegedly due to an untreated and infected pressure sore on his hip and physical restraints that immobilized him. Wininger died two days later. The lawsuit names Termini; Dr. Cornelio Hong, former medical director at several Haven nursing homes; and Dr. Joselito Endaya, Wininger’s treating physician and a partner in Hong’s private medical practice as defendants. Endaya does not appear to have been on Haven’s payroll. (more…)

Nursing home abuse and nursing home negligence is a growing problem in the US, but now there is a new tool available to help families avoid the worst nursing homes.  The Bush administration finally published the names of 131 of the nation’s worst nursing homes.  The administration initially tried to protect the deficient nursing homes, claiming some of the facilities were already showing signs of improvement.  But that decision drew the ire of congress, elderly advocates and others who said consumers needed the list to protect loved ones from nursing home abuse and negligence. the list was ultimately released by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and represents those troubled facilities that are cited as being a “special focus facility,” a designation used to identify facilities needing increased oversight.  For these nursing homes, states conduct inspections at six-month intervals rather than annually.

Last November, the government released only a partial list of 54 nursing homes that ranked among the worst in their states, however, a group of Democratic lawmakers pushed for full disclosure.  CMS said Tuesday it was publishing the names after cross checking information to ensure they released the most accurate data.  CMS will update its list of negligent nursing homes on a quarterly basis, with its next release scheduled for April. (more…)

The issue of nursing home abuse is making news in Florida, where the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and some state lawmakers are urging regulators to examine the issues  of nursing home abuse and neglect as they consider granting a nursing home license to a private equity firm that recently purchased facilities in Florida and around the country.  The Carlyle Group purchased HCR Manor Care for $4.9 million, and now owns 29 nursing throughout Florida.   The SEIU and other nursing home advocates fear that the Carlyle Group will move to cut costs at the nursing homes it owns, something that could put nursing home residents at risk for abuse and neglect.  Those concerns have only been heightened by the Florida nursing home “watch list” which already cites some Manor Care properties for providing inadequate care to nursing home patients.

Recently, private investment firms have looked to nursing homes as a possible route to easy money. These firms buy facilities, drastically reduce their costs, then turn around and sell them at huge profits.  Private investment groups have been targeting some of the biggest nursing home concerns, in turn affecting the care of millions of patients. In addition to Carlyle’s purchases of HCR Manor Car, Genesis Healthcare Corp. agreed to be bought by private equity in January, and Beverly Enterprises went private in 2005.

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Nursing home abuse is finally getting some attention from Congress, where two separate hearings were held yesterday to discuss the problem.   Committees from both the House of Representatives and the Senate took up the nursing home abuse issue, and now Congress will consider legislation to deal with this serious problem.

Nursing home abuse is one of the most serious problems facing this country’s elderly.  Though it concedes that the true number is probably much higher, The National Center on Elder Abuse estimates at least one in 20 nursing home patients has been the victim of abuse. According to the National Center’s study, 57% of nurses’ aides working in long-term care facilities admitted to having witnessed, and even participating in, acts of abuse. The report sites systemic problems within the nursing home industry, like inadequate pay for workers and chronic understaffing, as contributing to the epidemic of abuse. There are nearly 1.4 million Americans living in nursing homes right now, and that number is expected to more than double in the next decade. As it does, advocates for the elderly and disabled fear that incidences of abuse will continue to climb as well.

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Nursing home neglect often includes a lack of vision care for nursing home residents, a recent study has found. Unfortunately, this problem can have serious implications, as the same study has also discovered that nursing home patients who lack basic eye care have a lower quality of life and are at a higher risk for depression.

Researchers at the University of Alabama, Birmingham have been looking at the lack of eye care services for nursing home patients for some time. Earlier this summer, they published the first phase of their nursing home vision care survey. The investigation covered a total of 380 patients age 55 and older. In addition to examining medical records, each nursing home patient was interviewed about their use of eyeglasses and vision care. What the study found was startling. Even though 90 percent of the nursing home residents had health insurance, two thirds had no reference to an eye exam in their medical chart. When interviewed, 28 percent of residents said that their last exam occurred the previous year, while 20 percent said that it had been more than two years since their last exam. A third of patients couldn’t recall the last time they had an eye examination.

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A nursing home abuse bill, the Elder Justice Act, has been under consideration in Congress for the past five years but has received scant attention and has yet to be passed. Although nursing home and elder abuse are serious and growing problems in this country, the nursing home abuse bill has never even been voted on. While no one in Congress opposes the nursing home abuse legislation, few are trying to push it through the legislative process.

Congressional critics say that the Elder Justice Act has not been passed for a number of reasons that have little to nothing to do with the bill itself. For one thing, Congress has been distracted by the war in Iraq and partisan bickering. But for the most part, they say the Elder Justice Act has been allowed to collect dust because the issue of nursing home abuse has not garnered the kind of media attention it deserves. This past summer, while much of the media was focused on the problems of Paris Hilton and Brittany Spears, Congress held hearings on nursing home abuse. Those hearings were not covered by one major TV news network.

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