Nursing home residents are some of the most vulnerable and helpless citizens in the United States. Nearly 1.7 million elderly and disabled persons reside in approximately 17,000 facilities. In the world's richest country, evidence proves that many nursing home residents are being neglected and abused on a daily basis.In 1987 Congress passed legislation to improve nursing home care. However, following an in-depth investigation, a recent report released by Consumer Reports, uncovered that inadequate care in nursing homes is still very common, particularly in the large for-profit corporations that run nursing home chains across the nation.
In order to receive funding from public health care programs like Medicare, the Nursing Home Reform Act requires the nursing home industry to comply with federal regulations related to the quality of care of the elderly in nursing homes and requires that a nursing facility must care for its residents in such a manner and in such an environment as will promote maintenance or enhancement of the quality of life of each resident.
The nursing home revelations prove that those requirements are not being met. One of the worst examples of documented harm to the nation's elderly began in February 2006, during an annual review by state inspectors in Kentucky that found a high number of serious health and safety violations at the Lakeside Heights Nursing Center in Highland Heights; Kentucky's largest nursing home with 286 beds.
According to a report obtained in April 2006 by the Cincinnati Post through an open records request, the inspectors found 10 residents had been placed in what the state termed immediate jeopardy because of substandard practices and procedures, including one patient who died in November 2005 after the staff failed to respond with proper treatment to a health problem with which he was diagnosed. (Journal)
