A recent investigation into conditions at 60 Atlantic City, New Jersey-area nursing homes revealed that most are performing at a sub-par level. On a five-star quality rating system created by federal Medicare and Medicaid officials, 39 of the 60 homes scored three stars or less. Seven homes received only one star.
A home’s overall star-rating is a composite of ratings from three areas of investigation:
- Health inspections: Inspectors from state health agencies inspect each home to analyze quality of care, inspect medical records and talk with residents about their care. They evaluate about 180 different items.
- Staffing: The quality ratings reflect the staff-to-patient ratio. This metric accounts for the relative severity of each patient’s care, since sicker patients generally need more care.
- Quality Measures: This measure reports on how well each home performs on ten important aspects of patient care. For example, it looks at how well the home helps patients maintain their ability to feed and dress themselves and how the home prevents and treats skin ulcers.
All told, investigators discovered hundreds of care, safety and sanitation violations.
Patients Report Abuse and Neglect
The investigation revealed that many nursing home residents are forced to live under very troubling conditions. At the one-star homes, residents routinely experienced dirty conditions, verbal and physical abuse, neglect, medication errors, theft, falls and untreated infections.
Patients reported that complaints about medical care or living conditions often resulted in retaliation from staff. Although New Jersey state law gives nursing home residents the right to voice grievances without reprisal, many residents reported that patients who complained were verbally or physically abused, purposefully neglected or denied “extras” such as snacks.
The investigation reported many troubling patterns of nursing home neglect, including reports at one home that residents regularly soiled themselves because staff would not take them to the bathroom as frequently as necessary. Other residents reported having important medication, such as morphine, withheld or having infections go untreated.
Many residents expressed thankfulness for having a family member who visited regularly and was able to advocate on their behalf. They said residents who do not have frequent visitors are more likely to be mistreated.
Penalties Can Be Lax
Nursing homes can face fines if conditions do not improve within a specified period of time. They are given a chance to remedy the deficiencies first, and most do. However, in chronically low-scoring homes, investigators routinely find new violations to replace the remedied deficiencies.
Nursing home operators say that the ratings are not a good barometer of the quality of care they offer. However, their detractors allege that many homes, especially the low-performing ones, are cutting costs to increase profits — most of which come from taxpayer dollars.
Nursing home abuse is a serious issue. If a loved one is being abused or neglected, you would be wise to contact an experienced personal injury attorney in your area who can help advise you of your rights.
