Articles Posted in Nursing Home Abuse

Conditions at for-profit nursing homes worsened during the pandemic and patients suffered from it according to a recent report by by the House of Representatives’ Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis.

The Subcommittee looked at 5 for-profit chains that operate around 850 nursing homes with a total of 80,000 residents during the first months of the pandemic. According to the report these corporates are structured in an opaque way that allow them to shed responsibilities and protect themselves from being accountable for patient neglect or abuse.

The House of Representatives’ Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis found that work conditions were horrendous for the personal at these nursing homes with on average one nurse having to care for 30 patients. As a result, patients waited for hours, sometimes days for basic care. The report highlights a case of a patient who vomited on herself and was cleaned two days later or another patient who had to wait for hours just to get water.  Staff not only were forced to share personal protection equipment because of shortage but also pressured and threatened to work even though they were sick with Covid19. As a result, infection spread faster among already weak residents and staff. So far it is estimated that 160,000 nursing home residents and 2,600 nursing home workers died from Covid19.

“Unsafe food handling” was the third most common citation for American nursing homes in 2018 behind “lack of infection prevention and control” and “accidents related to  hazards, lack of supervision or devices” according to data from the from the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services. From 1998 to 2017, The Center for Disease Control recorded 230 food outbreaks in nursing homes resulting in 54 deaths, 532 hospitalizations and 7648 sickened residents.

33 % of all nursing homes in the nation were cited for food safety violations last year.  Among them, the nation largest chain of nursing homes, Genesis Healthcare had 47% of its nursing homes cited for food safety violations. The chain owns around 400 nursing homes in 27 states.

Unsafe food handling incidents reported at nursing homes all over the country recently included hundred of mouse droppings on the hood of the stove, flies in under-cooked hamburgers, moldy ice machines, mysterious debris in meat slicer and of course numerous complaints of cockroaches invasions and employees not washing their hands before handling food. These unhealthy conditions can potentially sickened and killed fragile nursing home residents.