Nursing Home Abuse is at all time highs, despite greater awareness. Millions of elderly residents are subjected to terrible living conditions or simply neglected to the point where they are seriously harmed through lack of care.

A government report, prepared by the Special Investigations Division of the House Government Reform Committee in 2001, found that 30 percent of nursing homes in the United States which represents nearly 5,200 homes were associated with over 9,000 abuse reports between in just two years, 1999 and 2000.

The abuse consisted of physical, sexual, verbal and other abuse. More than 1500 cases of abuse were stated to Congress as being so severe as "to cause actual harm to residents or to place the residents in immediate jeopardy of death or serious injury,"

Major Findings of This study concluded

Thousands of nursing homes are cited for abuse violations each year

Many nursing homes are repeat offenders with multiple reports of violations

A large number of the abuse reports actually caused harm to the affected residents

The incidence of abuse violations has risen dramatically since 1996 from 5.9% to 16% in 2000

Many of these abuse violations are discovered only after the filling of a formal complaint

The percentage of nursing home violations is increasing

The state inspection reports and citations reviewed in the investigation described many instances of appalling physical, sexual and verbal abuse of residents.

The potential for underreporting is common as many incidents never have a formal complaint issued

Nursing homes that do not accept Medicaid or Medicare funds are not subject to Federal inspections and cannot be cited for violations

Conclusion

This report finds that abuse of nursing home residents is a widespread and significant problem. In the last two years, nearly one out of every three nursing homes in the United States has been cited for violating federal standards established to prevent abuse of nursing home residents. In over 1,600 of the nursing homes cited for abuse violations, the violations caused actual harm to residents or placed residents in immediate jeopardy of death or serious injury. The review of a sample of state inspection reports and citations in this report indicates that these violations often involve serious abuses that cause significant damage to the health and well-being of nursing home residents.

If you believe a loved one has been subjected to abuse, contact us for an legal evaluation of your situation.

The homes cited by the report for instances of abuse accommodate some 550,000 residents. Nationwide, some 1.6 million people reside in 17,000 nursing homes and 11,000 of them are for-profit businesses.

The federal government is the biggest contributor of nursing home care, mostly through Medicaid, a joint federal-state health care program for the poor, and Medicare, the federal program for elderly and disabled people. Federal heath and safety standards are designed to protect nursing home residents from abuse.

To enforce the standards, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services contracts with the states to conduct annual inspections of nursing homes. The states also are required to investigate individual abuse complaints. The report's statistics were derived from these state inspections.

*Special Investigations Division of the House Government Reform Committee in 2001

Terms and Conditions