South Carolina Nursing Home Lawyer & Attorney : Poliakoff & Associates Law Firm : Elderly Care, Senior Care

Here is a link to the recent GAO Report that shows a lack of investigation into nursing home neglect and abuse.  The NY Times ran a great article on this report.  Below are some excerpts from that article.

Nursing home inspectors routinely overlook or minimize problems that pose a serious, immediate threat to patients, Congressional investigators say in a new report.   In the report, the investigators from the Government Accountability Office, say they have found widespread “understatement of deficiencies,” including malnutrition, severe bedsores, overuse of prescription medications and abuse of nursing home residents.

The accountability office found that state employees had missed at least one serious deficiency in 15 percent of the inspections checked by federal officials. In nine states, inspectors missed serious problems in more than 25 percent of the surveys analyzed from 2002 to 2007.

The nine states most likely to miss serious deficiencies were Alabama, Arizona, Missouri, New Mexico, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee and Wyoming, the report said.

“Poor quality of care — worsening pressure sores or untreated weight loss — in a small but unacceptably high number of nursing homes continues to harm residents or place them in immediate jeopardy, that is, at risk of death or serious injury,” the report said.   Nursing homes must meet federal standards as a condition of participating in Medicaid and Medicare.

Lewis Morris, chief counsel to the inspector general of the Department of Health and Human Services, said he had often been frustrated in trying to identify the owners of nursing homes that provided substandard care.  “We have found nursing home residents who were grossly dehydrated or malnourished,” Mr. Morris said. “We’ve found patients with maggot infestations in wounds and dead flesh. We’ve found residents with broken bones that went unmended.”

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Here is a link to the list of nursing homes that are failing in providing good care for pressure ulcers and physical restraints.  There are over 50 nursing homes located in South Carolina on this list.  South Carolina can certainly do better.  Pages 81 and 82 list the South Carolina nursing homes on the list.

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The Associate Press had this story today.   Fifty-six nursing homes are among the worst in their states and are being called out in an effort to goad them into providing proper patient care.

Lawmakers and advocacy groups complain that too many facilities get cited for serious deficiencies but don't make adequate improvement, or do so only temporarily.

The homes in question are among more than 120 designated as a "special focus facility." CMS began using the designation to identify homes that need more oversight.   The homes on the list got not only the special focus designation, but also registered a lack of improvement in a subsequent survey. 

There are about 16,400 nursing homes nationwide. About 1.5 million elderly people live in nursing homes. Taxpayers spend about $72.5 billion a year to pay the cost of nursing home care.

The AARP also applauded the administration's action.

"People in nursing homes have a right to know how well they're performing," said David Certner, director of legislative policy for AARP, an advocacy group for people 50 and older. "Their families certainly have a right to know what kind of care their relatives are receiving and if that care is substandard."

Here is the link to the list.

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