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The New York Times reported that more than 90 percent of nursing homes were cited for violations of federal health and safety standards last year. For-profit homes were more likely to have issues than other types of nursing homes, federal investigators stated in a report released on Monday. See http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/30/us/30nursing.html?partner=rssnyt&emc=rss Many nursing homes had deficiencies that caused "actual harm or immediate jeopardy" to residents, said the report, by Daniel R. Levinson, the inspector general of the Department of Health and Human Services. Problems included infected bedsores, medication mix-ups, poor nutrition, and abuse and neglect of patients. Inspectors received 37,150 complaints about conditions in nursing homes last year, and of those 39 percent of them were substantiated, the report said. About one-fifth of the complaints verified by federal and state authorities involved the abuse or neglect of patients. See http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/30/us/30nursing.html?partner=rssnyt&emc=rss The inspector general said 94 percent of for-profit nursing homes were found to have deficiencies last year, whereas 88 percent of nonprofit homes and 91 percent of government homes were cited for deficiencies. "For-profit nursing homes had a higher average number of deficiencies than the other types of nursing homes," Mr. Levinson said. "In 2007, for-profit nursing homes averaged 7.6 deficiencies per home, while not-for-profit and government homes averaged 5.7 and 6.3, respectively." On Monday, Levinson published a compliance guide for nursing homes that states some homes "have systematically failed to provide staff in sufficient numbers and with appropriate clinical expertise to serve their residents." Research has shown that people receive better care at facilities that maintain a higher ratio of nursing staff to patients. The inspector general reported he had discovered some cases in which nursing homes were billing Medicare and Medicaid for services that "were not provided, or were so wholly deficient that they amounted to no care at all."
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