What's gone wrong?

According to a recent article in the New York Times, big business may be to blame. The article reported that investors have been purchasing nursing homes at an alarming rate for the past seven years and reducing staff to increase profits. As a result, patient care has become dangerous in many situations and has even led to death. The Times found that nursing homes have cut staff and expenses that are now often below what the law requires. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services reported that residents today commonly complain of suffering from depression, loss of mobility and loss of the ability to dress themselves.

To many, that might not seem so bad. However, it gets worse. A lot worse. Consider these stories:

• An elderly deaf woman became incontinent after being in a nursing home and was put on a catheter. She complained repeatedly to her family about being in excruciating pain, but the home told the family it was due to arthritis. The pain became so bad that the home put her on morphine and she soon died. Afterwards, her family found out that she had numerous pressure sores and large open wounds several inches around on her buttocks and behind her knees – all from neglect.
• An elderly nursing home patient died of sepsis (caused by a perforated intestine that eventually poisons the body). After complaining over and over again about severe stomach pains, a staff doctor found nothing wrong with him. Afterwards, the staff at his nursing home began ignoring his cries for help. He died shortly afterwards.
• A nursing home resident with Alzheimer's fell out of bed. After calling for help from the staff for over an hour, she was able to crawl to the phone and call 911. She called for help for an hour until she crawled to a phone and called 911. Firefighters rescued her and found the nursing home staff asleep.
• An elderly nursing home resident with Alzheimer's disease died in 2003 after bedsores became infected from lack of care.

Study after study shows that patients are often neglected – especially those without friends or family that routinely check on their loved one. Many ailments of elderly nursing home patients are not treated seriously and staff can always blame their aches and pains on common ailments such as arthritis, fragility and just old age in general.

Why some litigation isn't working,

Many family members of nursing home patients have brought lawsuits against the companies that own these homes. However, trying to find out exactly who owns them is often very difficult as the homes are being purchased by investor groups that have figured out how to remain fairly anonymous. In the last example above, the family of the woman with Alzheimer's disease had to serve over 20 different companies before locating the owner. That process took over three years and cost the family over $30,000 – and the case hasn't even begun!

State regulators can only sit back and scratch their heads as it isn't illegal for the investor groups to purchases the homes. Regulators can issue fines when homes fall below state acceptable standards, but paying fines is sometimes less expensive than fixing the problem. In addition, as baby boomers continue aging, many of these homes are at capacity, so if one is shut down for violations, residents may have nowhere else to go.

What you CAN do

If your loved one is being mistreated in a nursing home, there are some things you can do to avoid the outcomes of the examples above:

• Speak with the person in charge. You're not apt to get anywhere with low level staff that may be just as frustrated as you are. Ask to speak with the person in charge and don't take no for an answer.
• Put your concerns in writing. Putting your concerns in writing, and asking for the home's responses in writing, shows the staff and owners that you mean business.
• Follow through. Follow through to make sure that any reasonable request is granted. If it isn't, immediately ask why.
• Start visiting more often and at different times. If you visit at the same time, the staff may clean up to be 'ready' for your visit – and then let everything slide once you've gone. Visit at different times to avoid the show.
• Contact an attorney. An attorney who deals primarily with medical negligence and elder abuse issues may be able to elevate the issue to a point where the staff and owners know you're serious.

If you are or a loved one is a victim of nursing home abuse, contact a nursing home abuse attorney.