Nursing Home Abuse: Younger Residents Have Their Own Needs

Posted on January 20, 2011 by John R Kormanik

In a recent post on his law firm's blog, my friend Randy Walton discussed a Washington Post story about younger nursing home residents and their needs. The WP story, by Matt Sedensky, reveals "about one in seven people now living in such facilities in the U.S. is under 65. But the growing phenomenon presents a host of challenges for nursing homes." In fact: :The number of under-65 nursing home residents has risen about 22 percent in the past eight years to about 203,000, according to an analysis of statistics from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services."

Many of the "younger" nursing home residents have suffered some type of traumatic injury which rendered them unable to care for themselves. The injuries, be it a gunshot wound or a car wreck, may have resulted in paralysis or a traumatic brain injury. "For young people who find themselves newly disabled, the psychological and social needs are often even more challenging than their physical demands. That presents a challenge for nursing homes that are used to serving people near the ends of their lives."

Nursing homes and assisted living living facilities need to do a better job at caring for all segments of their populations.

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Don't Be A Statistic - Make An Advanced Directive Or Living Will Today!

Posted on January 10, 2011 by John R Kormanik

In a recent article in the Wall Street Journal, Katherine Hobson discusses a Center for Disease Control (CDC) survey of nursing home and hospice residents' files. Specifically, the CDC survey looked to how many residents had an "end of life care plan" or "advanced directive" on file at the time of discharge.

The CDC's numbers were not good:

  • Overall, 28% of home health care patients, 65% of nursing home residents, and 88% of discharged hospice care patients had at least one advance directive (AD) on record.
  • The most common types of ADs among home health care patients, nursing home residents, and discharged hospice care patients were living wills and do not resuscitate orders.
  • Care recipients under age 65 years were less likely to have any AD than those aged 85 and over; black care recipients were less likely than white care recipients to have any AD in all three populations. These age and racial differences were larger in the home health care and nursing home populations than in the hospice care population.

Twenty years ago, Congress passed the Patient Self-Determination Act (PSDA) requiring most health care facilities to inform adult patients about their rights to execute an AD. I have previously written about the importance of "getting your affairs in order," which, in part, means having a living will or advanced directive. Don't be one of the 35% of nursing home residents or 72% of home health care patients without one.

It's important to make your wishes known in writing so that your loved ones will not be left to wonder what those wishes are. It is equally important to make sure your caregivers know what your wishes for end of life care are. Tell them! Make a living will or advanced directive today; don't wait another minute.

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Idaho's Ombudsman's Program Is Staffed Better Than Oregon's - Should You Feel Safer?

Posted on January 3, 2011 by John R Kormanik

In an article on the Oregonian's website, Julie Sullivan  laments the state of Oregon's Ombudsman's program. According to Ms. Sullivan, Oregon's ombudsman program has only one paid employee for every 6,692 long-term care facility beds. That is not good. Ms. Sullivan's article got me wondering how Idaho fairs in this arena.

One of the very first posts on this blog was about the Idaho Commission on Aging's Ombudsman program. If you recall, an Ombudsman is a person appointed by the Idaho Commission on Aging to investigate complaints concerning your care in either a Nursing Home or an Assisted Living Facility. The Ombudsman will insure your health, safety, welfare and rights are protected. You can contact the Ombudsman free of charge 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

According to the most recent survey available, the 2008 National Ombudsman Report, Idaho has one paid employee for every 1,054 long-term care facility beds. Although this is certainly better than Oregon, some changes apparently loom on the horizon for Idaho's Ombudsman's program. According to Ms. Sullivan, Oregon's Ombudsman's program is slated to loose two-thirds of its federal funding due to a scheduled change in the Medicare law. Idaho's Ombudsman program receives approximately 93.5% of its funding from the federal government. Given the state of the economy, it is highly unlikely any cut in federal funding will be replaced on a dollar-for-dollar basis by the state government. Idaho nursing home and assisted living facility residents may be in a much worse position in the coming year.

At the end of the day, making sure nursing home and assisted facility residents are safe is a full-time job. If you visit a family member, friend or loved-one at a facility, make sure their roommate or neighbor is doing alright. Unfortunately, an Ombudsman may not be around to do so.

 

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