Making life better

Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2008 | 2:07 a.m.

For years we have read horror stories about the mistreatment of nursing home residents, a problem that rarely gets the national attention it deserves. If nursing home care were a high priority, it wouldn’t have been necessary for the Health and Human Services Department’s inspector general, Daniel Levinson, to issue a scathing report detailing shoddy performance nationwide.

He reported Monday that from 2005 through 2007, more than 91 percent of all nursing homes in this country were cited for deficiencies, most of which dealt with issues of quality of care, resident assessment and quality of life. Last year 17 percent of the facilities had deficiencies related to “actual harm or immediate jeopardy.”

Too many nursing homes have accident hazards, and too many have dietary, housekeeping and maintenance issues. Too many fail to provide qualified professionals to deliver services, and too many do an inadequate job of addressing the residents’ mental and physical care.

Nevada as a state scored better than most. In 2007, 83.3 percent of its nursing homes were cited for deficiencies, fourth lowest in the nation. But that was nothing to be proud of. Those homes averaged nearly seven deficiencies apiece, roughly the national average.

For-profit homes came out the worst last year, with 94 percent showing deficiencies nationwide, but that was only slightly worse than the facilities operated by nonprofit organizations or government agencies.

Any way you look at it, these statistics are not flattering. They reflect poorly on the way we as a nation treat one of our most vulnerable populations.

One way to reverse these problems is for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, which reimburses nursing home costs, and states, which inspect the facilities, to demand that the homes have adequate staffing. More specifically, the staffs should be well-trained, humane and competent enough to provide all the services that residents need.

Let’s clean up these deficiencies as soon as possible and give nursing home residents the proper care they deserve.