Southern California Nursing Home Abuse Lawyer Blog

A study just released by the Inspector General of the Department of Health and Human Services reports that 94% of all nursing homes nationwide were cited for violations of federal health and safety standards during 2007. Approximately 17% received deficiencies or citations for issues which caused “actual harm or immediate jeopardy” to residents. These deficiencies were for such things as bedsores, medication errors, lack of nutrition/dehydration, abuse and neglect of residents.

In total, inspectors received 37,150 complaints nationwide. Surprsingly, only one-fifth of the verified complaints involved the abuse or neglect of patients. The remainder were for adminsitrative issues or those related to the physical premises.

Another telling statistic is that 94% of for-profit nursing homes were cited whereas only 88% of non-profit nursing homes were cited. For-profit also received an average of 7.6 deficiencies per home whereas non-profits averaged 5.7 per home.

On Wednesday, the Senate Finance Committee approved two bills which will help prevent neglect and abuse of elderly persons.

A frequent source of abuse are caregivers who are repeat violent offenders. A bill (S 1577), sponsored by Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wis.), would create a nationwide background check system to screen long-term care employees for a history of abuse or a violent criminal record prior to hiring.

A seven-state pilot program established under the 2003 Medicare law already exists and would be expanded by this bill. The bill would provide as much as $160 million in grants over three years to states which seek to participate in the program. This law would help keep violent offenders from working in nursing homes with particularly vulnerable elderly patients.

Yesterday, the U.S. Census Bureau reported the number of citizens age 65 and older will more than double from their current number of 38.7 million to 88.5 million in 2050. The population of 85 and older is predicted to triple in number to 19 million from 5.4 million during the same period.

At the same time, the “working age” population, i.e. those aged 18 to 64 is expected to decrease to 57% of the popoluation from 63% currently. What this means is that there will be fewer people available to care for more elders. Will this cause an increase in nursing home abuse and/or neglect?

As any attorney who represents elders in elder abuse or elder neglect cases against nursing homes will tell you, the number one direct cause of elder abuse is a lack of staffing. Most elder abuse does not occur because the caregivers want to abuse/neglect their residents. It occurs because there aren’t enough caregivers to perform all of the necessary tasks.