Few Prosecutions in Elderly Abuse
March 5, 2002 — -- Infected feeding tubes and bed sores the size of dinner plates were just some of the signs of neglect found when reviewing nursing home deaths, according to one coroner's Senate hearing testimony.
During Monday's Senate hearing on nursing home abuse Mark Malcolm, a coroner from Pulaski County Ark., testified that his office reviewed 2,400 nusing home deaths since 1999. A state law requires that all nursing home deaths be reported.
"In the majority of these cases we have found the level of care to be adequate," Malcolm told the committee. "In 56 of these death investigations we have uncovered a much different story. We have seen dinner plate-sized bed sores with infected necronic dying tissue, infected feeding tubes, rapid and unexplained weight loss, dehydration, improperly administered medications and medication errors that have resulted in death."
The hearing followed a government report that says such abuse in nursing homes is not unusual. The General Accounting Office, the investigative arm of Congress, released the study, which indicates that more than 30 percent of the nation's nursing homes have been cited for violations that "caused actual harm to residents or put them in immediate jeopardy."
The report — based on an 18-month investigation of abuse files in three states, Pennsylvania, Georgia and Illinois — also confirmed another fear: Allegations of physical and sexual abuse of nursing home residents are "frequently not reported in a timely manner." As a result, few abusers are ever prosecuted. Those who are prosecuted often get light sentences, the report finds.
Helen Love, a 75-year-old grandmother, was living in a Sacramento, Calif. nursing home when a nurse's aide beat her so severely that her neck was broken.
'He Choked Me'
"He started beating me all along the bed," Love said in a videotaped deposition after the incident. "He choked me, and he went and broke my neck."
There was "no end to the pain," she said.
Love died two days after the recording. The aide, who is accused of beating Love because she soiled herself, pleaded no contest to the 1998 beating and spent 12 months in jail.
Abusers Often Go Unpunished
Love's son Bruce tearfully gave senators a message from his late mother during the hearing: "I don't want anyone else to suffer like this."
Bruce Love is concerned that the current rules allow caretakers who have been charged with abuse in one state to find similar jobs in other states.
The GAO report calls on the federal government to take steps to encourage the immediate reporting of abuse to law enforcement agencies. It also suggests a systematic assessment of how states are complying with the federal requirement that nursing homes are not supposed to hire people who have committed abuse in the past.
A Safe Home
Pat McGinnis, a board member of the National Citizen's Coalition for Nursing Home Reform, said families should do their homework before putting their loved ones into a home.
"We tell people to trust their gut, said McGinnis on ABCNEWS' Good Morning America. "If you don't like walking around the facility, your mother probably won't either."
McGinnis also suggests families only choose facilities that are very close to home so they can visit frequently and at different times of the day.
Dr. Charles Roadman, president of the American Health Care Association, a nursing home industry trade group, told Good Morning America that he worries the actions of a few nursing home employees will overshadow the quality care being delivered by many workers each day.
However, Roadman said the GAO report was "absolutely on the record," and that his group supports all of its recommendations and intends to work with the government to solve the problems.
About 1.6 million Americans are cared for in 17,000 nursing homes, which received $58.4 billion in reimbursements from Medicare and Medicaid in 2001.