As the for-profit nursing home industry grows, the number of residents that show signs of neglect grows as well. According to a new article in the American Journal of Managed Care, residents of for-profit nursing homes are almost twice as likely to experience adverse health issues as a direct result of substandard care.
Lee Friedman, PhD, associate professor of environmental and occupational health sciences at the University of Illinois at Chicago conducted a study with colleagues, and found increased incidents of serious neglect, including dehydration, more severe bed sores, broken catheters, broken feeding tubes, and the mismanagement of medications.The study used the Clinical Signs of Neglect Scale (CSNS) to measure the level of neglect that patients experienced.
Inadequate staffing was also noted to be a problem in for-profit skilled nursing facilities. While administrators are paid more at for-profit nursing homes, nurses, nursing assistants, and other support staff are often underpaid. This can lead to high staff turnover rates, causing problems with continuity of care for residents.
In our own experience, nursing home chains often understaff their facilities to save money. Sometimes this is across the board, and sometimes nursing homes will hire fewer RN nurses, and bulk up on less-qualified, but cheaper, LPN nurses.
If you or a loved one are a victim of neglect or abuse at the hands of a for-profit nursing facility in North Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia, or Kentucky, please reach out to the attorneys at Daniel, Holoman & Associates LLP. We are here to help protect society's most vulnerable people.