Nursing Home Abuse
Nursing Home Abuse - From ABCNEWS.COM
A study done by the minority staff of the Special Investigations
Division of the House Government Reform Committee, finds that 30
percent of nursing homes in the United States — 5,283 facilities
— were cited for almost 9,000 instances of nursing home abuse
over a recent two-year period, from January 1999 to January 2001.
Common problems of nursing home abuse included untreated bedsores,
inadequate medical care, malnutrition, dehydration, preventable
accidents, and inadequate sanitation and hygiene, the report said.
Many of the nursing home abuse violations caused harm to the residents,
the report said. In 1,601 cases, the nursing home abuse violations
were serious enough "to cause actual harm to residents or to
place the residents in immediate jeopardy of death or serious injury,"
it said.
"What we have found is shocking," says Rep. Henry Waxman,
D-Calif., the committee's minority leader, who instructed the staff
to do the study. Kelley Queale, director of communications for the
California Association of Health Facilities, however, says reports
such as the one released today can be misleading, since stringent
nursing home regulations require reporting even the most minor of
nursing home abuse incidents, such as one resident slapping another.
"That inflates the figures and makes it sound a lot worse than
the reality is," she says. "We believe that nursing homes
are providing the best care they can in a difficult environment."
In some reported nursing home abuse cases, a member of the staff
was accused of committing physical or sexual abuse. In others, staff
were cited for failing to protect people from abuse by other residents.
The report documents instances of residents being punched, slapped,
choked or kicked by staff members or other residents, causing injuries
such as fractured bones or lacerations. Some of the violations uncovered
are particularly disturbing. In one nursing home abuse case, according
to the report, an attendant walked into a resident's room, said
"I'm tired of your ass," and hit her in the face, breaking
her nose.
In another case of nursing home abuse, attendants bribed a brain-damaged
patient with cigarettes to attack another resident, then watched
the two fight. The report also described a case in which a male
attendant molested an elderly female resident while bathing her.
Instances of nursing home abuse appear to be on the rise. The percentage
of nursing homes cited for nursing home abuse violations has increased
every year since 1996, according to the report.
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