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All too often we hear stories in our office of tragedy and horror about elderly family members who have been abused and neglected at nursing homes. There are stories about the resident laying in soiled sheets and clothing for hours at a time, to residents who have had severe urinary tract infections which went untreated and turned to sepsis and caused kidney failure, to the failure to turn a resident which led to bed sores so severe that that the bone was showing and amputation had to occur. We have seen many of these types of cases and many other kinds of neglect in nursing homes. The primary cause of the neglect in such situations is lack of staffing and proper funding. Nursing homes today have set up their corporate structure to maximize profit at the residents' expense. They also try to have the corporate entities set so they are protected from legal action. The best way for the nursing home corporations to maximize profit it to keep staffing low and under fund the facility. The result is that there is an insufficient number of staff to care for all of the residents in a given facility. In addition to complicating the corporate structure with corporate shells which operate with no insurance and the like, the nursing homes often have mandatory arbitration clauses in their admission agreement which they have the resident or resident's representative sign in order to go forward with the admission. These clauses take away the resident's or their family's right to sue in the event of neglect, negligence, or abuse which may occur at the nursing home. Recently, Congress has introduced a bill named the Fairness in Nursing Home Arbitration Act, S. 2838 and H.R. 6126, which would invalidate mandatory arbitration clauses in nursing home, assisted living, and other long-term care facility contracts. Under the bills, residents and families could voluntarily choose to arbitrate an issue after a problem occurred; but they would no longer be forced in advance (usually during the admissions process) to agree to give up their right to sue the facility if it severely abused, neglected, or financially exploited the resident. See the following site: www.nccnhr.org/public/460_2459_19013.cfm The bill is presently being debated in Congress and is unfortunately being opposed by many Republican Congressmen who are highly lobbied by the nursing home and insurance industry. Such a bill would be a good step toward holding such facilities responsible for the unfortunate injuries and neglect which occur far too often to the elderly family and friends we love.
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