It's a sad reality that our final years of life can be among the most difficult. Just as we have the wisdom that comes from a lifetime of experience, health issues may rob us of our independence, requiring us to live in a nursing home. And while many older Americans find great comfort there, others face nursing home abuse or neglect, just when they are most vulnerable.
Nationwide, there are roughly 17,000 nursing homes, with more than 1.5 million residents. About one out of five nursing homes were cited for serious deficiencies in a 2007 study by the Government Accountability Office, for problems such as malnutrition, overuse of prescription drugs, severe bedsores, and outright abuse of residents.
Efforts to minimize the risks associated with stays in nursing homes must be made by the nursing homes, but also by the families of the patients and even the patients themselves. Yet patients and their families often have little information to go on when selecting a nursing home in the first place.
Some of that may change with the passage of the 2010 healthcare reforms. As part of the reforms, new federal regulations require nursing homes to update the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) with statistics on staffing, results of state inspection surveys, and complaints the home has received. The new law also calls for transparency in ownership, so that residents and their families have a clear understanding of who owns and runs the homes they are considering.
This increased scrutiny and reporting obligations will likely encourage nursing homes to improve their practices, but other federal programs may help, as well. In 2009, CMS launched a pilot program in 62 Wisconsin nursing homes (and others in Arizona and New York) that would reward homes that implemented programs designed to increase their patients' overall health. If the program goes as intended, the costs in Medicare expenditures that the facilities save the government would be awarded back to the nursing homes as an incentive for the improvements.
Data on the pilot program is not yet available, but with the recent nursing home law changes and greater attention on the subject of elder abuse, patients and their families have a better environment in which to choose and monitor the facilities that house so many U.S. seniors.
If you suspect that someone you love has been abused or neglected in a nursing home, contact an experienced personal injury attorney at our firm to discuss your legal options.
