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Nursing Home Abuse In The
News
Reports of serious, physical, sexual
and verbal abuse are "numerous" among the
nation's nursing homes, according to a congressional
report released today. The study, prepared by the
minority (Democratic and Independent) staff of the
Special Investigations Division of the House Government
Reform Committee, finds that 30 percent of nursing
homes in the United States — 5,283 facilities
— were cited for almost 9,000 instances of abuse
over a recent two-year period, from January 1999 to
January 2001. Common problems included untreated bedsores,
inadequate medical care, malnutrition, dehydration,
preventable accidents, and inadequate sanitation and
hygiene, the report said. Read
the entire story…
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Alice Oshatz is
an 85 year old woman who can no longer handle living
on her own but does not want to burden her children.
A nursing home seems to be the only option, an option
she never wanted to have. She is not the only one
who feels that way. Eighty-three percent of elderly
Americans would stay in their homes until the end
if they could. Thirty percent say they'd rather die
than go into a nursing home. And their fears may be
well founded. Nursing home inspection documents show
that more than a quarter of American nursing homes
were repeatedly cited for serious violations that
caused death or injury to patients. In California,
a third of the homes have been cited for causing serious
harm or death to patients. In 1998, less than 2 percent
of California nursing homes had no violations. A CBS
News analysis of the federal government's nursing
home inspection database finds more than 1,000 homes
were cited last year for hiring staff with a history
of abuse. Read
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Almost one of every
three nursing homes in the United States has been
cited for an abuse or violation, according to a government
report released Monday. The report, prepared at the
request of Rep. Henry Waxman, D-California, found
that over a two-year period from January 1, 1999 through
January 1, 2001, all violations reported in nursing
homes "had at least the potential to harm nursing
home residents." Of the more than 17,000 nursing
homes nationwide, 5,283 nursing homes had been cited
for an abuse violation. Read
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The nation is facing a severe
crisis in how it will care for its elderly. In Massachusetts,
56 nursing homes have closed in the last two years.
California is facing a severe shortage of qualified
caregivers as is Pennsylvania and many other states.
Forty out of fifty states have task forces in place
to address this pressing issue. The problems will
only get worse because the demand for adequate nursing
home and home care will increase as baby-boomers age.
Susan Eaton is an assistant professor of public policy
and has studied the link between human resource personnel
management and the quality of patient care in nursing
homes. “The federal government, through the Health
Care Financing Administration (HCFA), which is part
of the US Department of Health and Human Services,
has commissioned several studies to examine mandating
minimum staff ratios. Many quality problems, including
safety, arise from under-staffing, either because
of too few trained staff or because of poor management
practices. If such ratios are mandated, nursing home
managers will have to rethink their human resource
policies and allocate more money to recruiting, attracting,
and retaining nursing staffs. In addition, federal
funds are needed to study best practices and to increase
enforcement to punish egregious repeat offenders as
well as to encourage states to experiment with solutions.”
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Marion Heide’s life ended at 88, with Marion
bruised and bleeding, curled into a ball in a nursing
home bed, so scared of the nurses who were supposed
to help her that she cried when they came near. Her
decline began with a scraped leg. Without the care
she needed, the scrape turned into a sore. The skin
around it turned black, and infection sank to the
bone. Finally, doctors cut off her leg. Marion died
three months later.
Jurors understood that she was near the end of her
life, sick with diabetes and a bad heart. That didn't
excuse her final 11 months. They slapped the nursing
home's owner and its operator - a corporation that
runs more than 100 nursing homes across the Southeast
- with a negligence verdict and $6.5 million in compensatory
damages. When the jurors said they wanted to consider
punitive damages, too, the defendants' lawyers settled
for an even $10 million and ended the case there.
Despite federal and state laws, hundreds of inspectors
across the country and years of newspaper and TV horror
stories, neglect and abuse of the elderly remain cruel
realities. One nursing home in four has severe deficiencies
that endanger people's health or their lives, according
to a recent federal study. Advocates for reform say
that figure is low, and they note that the aging of
the baby boom generation promises to exacerbate the
problem.
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In a written statement
provided to the Senate Special Committee on Aging,
Oliva says her mother Marie Espinoza, who was suffering
from a degenerative brain disease, had bruises, bedsores
and a broken pelvis within months after her 1995 arrival
at the Orangetree Convalescent Hospital. Food was
often left at the foot of her bed, out of her reach.
She began to lose weight. "She always seemed
to be starving or begging for water," says Oliva
in her official account. At Extended Care Hospital,
Espinoza suffered severe dehydration and bedsores.
Last January she entered Palm Terrace Convalescent
Center. The nursing home said she died after choking
on food, but Oliva plans to tell the committee that
this makes no sense: Espinoza was supposed to be fed
through a tube. All three nursing homes deny any wrongdoing.
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Bessie Seday recounts her experiences
in a California nursing home, Creekside Care Convalescent
Hospital. Unfortunately Bessie’s account is not
a rare thing anymore, as 1 out of 4 nursing homes
every year is cited for causing death or serious injury
to a resident. She realized the nightmare that had
become her home immediately. "I couldn't get
anybody's attention, starting on the fourth day,"
recalls the bed-bound 84-year-old. "You'd have
your call light on for hours, but nobody came."
What made her waiting more desolate was the near total
deprivation of sunlight during her four months at
Creekside. "It was a dungeon," she says.
"I really would have liked to see the sunshine,
but they never put us outside." Things only got
worse when the sunset, and the staff ignored calls
for help or painkillers. "The screaming is what
got to me the worst, the screaming when the lights
went out," she says. "I couldn't fall asleep
until 1 or 2 in the morning with all that screaming
going on." Read
the entire story…
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