Study Highlights Nursing Home Dangers

July 16, 2003 — -- When Sheila Albores' mother was admitted to an Illinois nursing home to help her learn how to care for a newly inserted breathing tube, Albores believed she would only stay for a few days. But in a few days, 57-year-old Anna Carrasco was dead.

"I just think a total lack of concern, no matter the complaints I voiced … [they] just fell on deaf ears," Albores said.

Albores and her attorney believe the nursing home is to blame. When she visited her mother that first afternoon, Carrasco had not yet been cared for, she says.

"The paramedics that brought her from the hospital had placed her in a bed, and no one had admitted her or taken care of her needs by the time I arrived," said Albores.

The nursing home says a state investigation found no serious problems with its care.

But a report by the General Accounting Office that will be released Thursday on Capitol Hill questions whether states are doing a good enough job monitoring and correcting problems in nursing homes.

The GAO, the government watchdog agency, says states seriously underestimate deficiencies at nursing homes. Federal inspectors found 19 percent of homes that the state investigators said were not deficient were in fact causing their patients harm, or putting them in immediate jeopardy.

"I think its extremely disconcerting to see how many problems there are with nursing homes," said Trudy Nearn, an elderly law attorney in Sacramento, Calif. "Even the nursing homes that have had good reputations in the past are having problems now."

The GAO report also found that many state inspection processes are too predictable, allowing nursing homes to prepare for the inspection. About one-third of the most recent state surveys nationwide occurred on a predictable schedule, allowing homes to conceal problems if they chose to do so.

The study says states are failing to report serious violations to the federal government as required. From January 2000 to March 2002, the states referred 4,310 cases for possible sanctions, but did not report another 711. One of the worst offenders was New York, which reported 22 cases, but failed to report another 140.