By: Healther Hajek
What happens when we are no longer able to care for ourselves? Some Americans are fortunate enough to have loved ones willing and able to take on the large responsibility of caring for them or they are blessed to afford in home care or assisted living, during their dependant times of life. A large number of the U.S. population, spend their later, more dependent years, under the care of a nursing home. However, nursing homes seem to continue with a trend of having deficiencies. This past year, 90 percent of the nursing homes surveyed were sited for at least one deficiency, with for-profit nursing homes coming out on top with the most citations.
Across the United States 15,000 nursing homes house more than 1.5 million people and two-thirds of the residents are Medicaid or Medicare participants. The annual cost for this care is more than $75 billion. In order for nursing homes to receive funding from the government through Medicaid and Medicare, they must meet federal standards and are inspected at least once, unannounced, every 15 months.
The care in nursing homes has fallen short for several years and continues to draw scrutiny from the public and the government. The inspector general for the Department of Health and Human Services, Daniel Levinson, in a recent government report, regarding federal violations of nursing homes stated, of the nursing homes surveyed, around 94 percent of the for-profit nursing homes, 91 percent of government-operated nursing homes, and 88 percent of non-profit nursing homes received a citation. (The majority of nursing homes are owned by for-profit companies.)
The proportions of citations for deficiencies in nursing homes across the U.S. varied from 100 percent in Alaska, Idaho, Wyoming and the District of Columbia, to 76 percent in Rhode Island. The recent report says the most common violations of the nursing homes surveyed were improper storage and distribution of food, lack of services needed for patients’ well being, and accident hazards. Around 17 percent of nursing homes evaluated actually were given the most serious violations for “actual harm” or “immediate jeopardy.” Of the 37,150 complaints received by inspectors to conditions of nursing homes in 2007, 39 percent were substantiated, and 20% of the verified complaints involved abuse or neglect of nursing home residents, per the report.
Whether it is your parents, grandparents, sibling, friend or spouse, more than likely someone you know lives in a nursing home. Reading the statistics of the most recent report released by the Department of Health and Human Services, it can be very disheartening when we think of someone we love being mistreated or not cared for in the manner we would like. The government continues work to improve elderly care facilities and hopes new efforts to post the names of facilities that score low during the states inspections on its website will help to reduce the number of violations. We may also soon see star ratings on the government website in regards to nursing homes quality of service as you may sometimes see for ratings of hotels, which could help when locating the best option for a loved one needing nursing home care.
