Nursing Home Reform - Nursing Home Abuse Resource

Nursing Home Reform

Nursing home reform has been an ongoing effort pursued by the federal and state governments. Nursing home reform came originally as a response to nationwide investigations of nursing home abuse and neglect against nursing home residents. Nursing home malpractice is a widespread crisis in the United States that nursing home reform laws attempt to remedy.

Federal government inspections have shown that at least thirty percent of the nursing homes across the nation have committed some significant nursing home malice or neglect. USA Today reported in 2003 that at least half of all nursing home residents suffer from untreated pain. Government records suggest that more than four thousand nursing home resident deaths in 1999 were the result of dehydration, malnutrition, or bedsores, all of which are caused by negligence.

Knowledge of the near ubiquity of nursing home malpractice prompted the federal government to take action in the late 1980s. In 1987 the Federal Nursing Home Care Reform Act was passed as part of the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act. This nursing home reform law established a comprehensive set of nursing home standards that emphasized both quality of care and quality of life for nursing home residents.

The fundamental principle on which this nursing home reform is grounded is that, "nursing homes must provide services and activities to attain or maintain the highest practicable physical, mental, and psychosocial well-being of each resident in accordance with a written plan of care established for every resident and periodically updated." This nursing home reform law goes on to detail approximately 150 standards of care that must be met by nursing home care facilities.

As outlined in the nursing home reform act, state inspectors conduct unannounced nursing home facility inspections every nine to fifteen months. During these surveys, inspectors will evaluate a facility and its staff based on the standards set fourth in the nursing home reform law. They will cite a facility for any degree of non-compliance and will indicate how these acts must be corrected. All of the information collected in these inspections is public information and can be accessed by any interested party.

Statistics show that about eighty eight percent of all nursing home facility inspections identify at least one deficiency in a facility's level of administered care. Approximately thirty percent find gross acts of negligence or abuse in a nursing home facility. When non-compliance with nursing home reform law is identified, corrective action may be ordered or the facility may face civil and criminal litigation.

Nursing care reform is an ongoing issue pursued at the state and federal level. New nursing care reform laws are passed periodically in order to protect the rights of nursing home residents.

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