Reports of elderly abuse are widespread among the nation’s nursing homes, according to a government report. The study, prepared at the request of Rep. Henry Waxman, D-California, found that 30 percent of nursing homes in the United States - 5,283 facilities - were cited for almost 9,000 instances of abuse over a recent two-year period, from January 1999 to January 2001. According to the report, in 1,601 cases, the abuse violations were serious enough to cause actual harm to residents or to place residents in immediate jeopardy of death or serious injury.
Strict regulations require reporting the most minor of incidents, such reports are misleading, said Kelly Queale, director of communications for the California Association of Health Facilities.
(via ABC News)
1 response so far ↓
VM // Mar 24, 2005 at 12:58 am
Had I and a few other family members (took turns 24 hr watch) not been at the hospital with my grandmother…she would be dead today. Morphine and starvation was their way of forcing her to die at our local hospital…when I made mention that it wasn’t up to them when she was to die… after weeks of battle between us feeding her and the hospital giving her “cancer treatment” within one day of my comment they let her go home. She has no cancer…and is still alive, but the ordeal left her very weak and fragile. I don’t expect her to live for too long. They forced a feeding tube into her and drove her sugar levels dangerously high, even when she had no diabetes…they at the same time gave her soda and sugar ice cream, but no real food. Can’t understand why. She had an infection in her arm from a tube that had not been dressed in days, and when I took pictures of it…the nurses noticed the flash and alerted the staff and they immediately started to check on grandma as we made mention of her painful arm. They left the room and spoke in private by closing my grandmother’s room and returned to removed it when they noticed red streaks going up her arm…she was in great pain. As far as we know she will never go back to the hospital and desires to die at home in peace. I always suggest to people that if they have a love one at the hopital to have a family member stay with them at all times. Can you imagine when these poor souls live alone in a nursing home (although I’d try and protect my investment if I was in this industry,and keep these residents alive and well). As for the Hospital situation……one thought comes to mind…POPULATION CONTROL. We need “watchdog” citizen agancies to have the right to visit these patients and be able and willing to report anything suspicious. This can only happen with the assistence of our Gov whom is suppose to be looking out for the best interest of the citizen.
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