Philadelphia Injury Attorney Blog

My mother-in-law is 92 years old and is currently a resident of a prominent assisted living facility. For the past year, many of the residents and their families have made numerous complaints about the inadequacy of the quality of care delivered in the facility. As I visited the nursing home facility over the past year, it was not uncommon to learn of the deaths of individuals who I had just seen appearing in healthy condition just weeks earlier. Apparently with the decline in the economy, the care at the nursing home had declined to less than acceptable. Many inhabitants and families were noticeably angry and lodging complaints to the young administrator who had a background, unbelievably and more surprisingly, in physical education. The number of clinical registered nurses at the facility was reduced and replaced with practical day nurses who often do not have proper or adequate training. Budgets for nursing supplies, resident activities, and other services also have decreased. When questioned about the apparent decreased standards and conditions, we were told that the company was working to improve the situation, but frankly, this has just been plain old lipservice. The company even started to re-work financial arrangements quietly with many of the residents to prevent growing attrition.

The New York Times recently conducted an analysis of nursing homes and collected data by government agencies from 2000 to 2006. The analysis noted that when nursing homes are acquired by large private investors, they cut expenses and staff (sometimes below minimum legal requirements). According to the New York Times article published on September 23, 2007, it is noted that the typical nursing home acquired by a large investment company scored worse than national rates in 12 out of 14 indicators that regulators use to track elements of long term residents. Before these homes were acquired by private investors, many of these homes scored at or above national averages in similar measurements. The article notes that private investment companies have made it very difficult for plaintiffs who have suffered harm to succeed in court and for regulators to levy chainwide fines due to the creation of complex corporate structures that have obscured who controls the nursing homes. (New York Times article)