Judge: Nursing Homes Are "Orphanages For The Aged"
May 22, 2001
Both the Federal and state governments heavily regulate nursing homes and similar assisted living facilities. In spite of this oversight, many facilities still provide inadequate care for residents. Nursing homes, assisted living facilities, and home healthcare agencies are handling increasingly more complex care situations as more and more seriously ill patients are being discharged from hospitals and admitted into these facilities. Today's residents are much sicker than those of the 1980s. This trend is bound to continue as the population ages. This additional pressure on the system increases the potential for substandard care.
While the initial players in the nursing home game were small business owners, today's facilities are owned and operated by large corporations with national scope. In 1987 the Federal government initiated a regulatory program requiring facilities to abide by certain standards. Additionally, the 1987 legislation subjected facilities to spot inspections and sanctions for poor performance (including license suspension or revocation, hefty fines, and denial of federal funds). Among other rules, the Federal regulations mandate that residents:
- be free from physical or mental abuse
- may only be physically restrained to ensure their safety
- must be given adequate privacy
- cannot be forced to take psychopharmacologic drugs unless medically necessary
In addition to government regulation, private industry groups such as the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) and the National Committee on Quality Assurance (NCQA) offer accreditation programs that essentially give facilities a "stamp of approval" if they meet the groups' guidelines.
Despite the governmental and self-regulatory programs described above, abuse and neglect remain major problems in our Nation's nursing homes and assisted living facilities. As one judge put it, "life in some nursing homes is so bad that the homes could be characterized as orphanages for the aged."
-- Article Courtesy of InjuryBoard.com
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