Final rule gives providers and beneficiaries access to quality data - McKnight's Long Term Care News

A final rule issued Monday will allow Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries access to information about costs and quality of care information about various providers including nursing homes, regulators say.
As required by the Affordable Care Act, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services announced a proposed rule designed to help beneficiaries make more informed decisions in June. The final rule, effective Jan. 6, 2012, gives qualified organizations and beneficiaries access to reports about providers, such as nursing homes, hospitals and physicians. The reports will be a combination of private sector and Medicare claims data, and patients' identities will be protected.
According to the rule, “qualified entities may receive data for one or more specified geographic areas and must pay a fee equal to the cost of making the data available.”
See Rule: final_data_rule_7685.pdf
Final rule gives providers and beneficiaries access to quality data - McKnight's Long Term Care News

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Neglect common in Michigan nursing homes

Michigan issues thousands of violations against nursing homes each year, but the number of documented cases of outright abuse is much smaller, though exact numbers are hard to come by.
Four of five Michigan nursing homes in a three-year period were cited for some form of nursing home mistreatment. But that label covers everything from an aide striking a resident to more passive lapses, such as failing to conduct a background check on an employee or an aide's failure to report an unexplained injury.
For example, Tendercare in Kalamazoo County was cited in November 2010 after an aide pinched and slapped a 100-year-old woman who used a racial slur while resisting going to bed, an inspector wrote. A co-worker said the aide then walked away like nothing happened.

Neglect common in nursing homes, but state seldom cites outright abuse Detroit Free Press freep.com

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Depression and stress prevalent in low-wage earning nursing home workers

This study reveals findinfs that are NO surprise to anyone familiar with American Nursing homes: The prevalence of depression is common among low-wage nursing home workers — who also experience higher levels of stress than other workers — a new Harvard study finds. In one case I handled against Kindred Healthcare, the CNA accused of abusing 4 Elders with Alzheimers had worked an incredible 105 hours in one week.
“The high burden of work-family stress and depression in this group has important public health implications for the nursing home workers and their families as well as for the quality of care delivered to nursing home residents,” said Harvard School of Public Health researcher Cassandra Okechukwu.
Okechukwu and her team surveyed 452 workers, mostly women, to investigate the link between depression and stress at home and work. Participants were asked about stressors such as financial hardships, lack of food and whether they worried about work-related issues during non-work hours. Investigators found that these stressors were double the rate in nursing home workers than other professions.
Okechukwu and her team, which released their findings earlier this week, said they hope to use this information to develop interventions aimed at improving work-family problems among nursing home workers.

Study: Depression and stress prevalent in low-wage earning nursing home workers - McKnight's Long Term Care News

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Nursing assistant guilty of rape of a dementia patient

I read yesterday that a former certified nursing assistant was sentenced to up to eight years in prison for raping a 69-year-old woman with dementia. Jerald Sullivan was also ordered to register as a sex offender after pleading guilty Wednesday in Berkshire Superior Court. Prosecutors say Sullivan sexually assaulted the elder woman in January 2011 while working at the Hillcrest Commons nursing facility in Pittsfield. The judge called the elder crime "reprehensible." I don't know the facts of this case but from the article ot looks like the Judge 'got it right'. I have seen Judges at criminal sentencing of abusive and assaultive nurse aides take a much more lenient approach leaving the distressed families and victims with no recourse other than the civil justice system a la the O.J. Simpson victims.

A nurse aid at a Kindred nursing facility in Massachusetts escaped any jail time even after admitting to assaulting 4 helpless dementia residents. Two subsequent civil nursing home abuse actions provided some measure of justice for the victims families but only after a protracted and hard fought battle to bring Kindred to Justice.

Federal and State Laws specifically prohibit any type of assault upon elders in nursing homes, but it takes a judge or jury to bring these laws to life.

Nursing assistant pleads guilty to raping a patient with dementia at Pittsfield nursing home | The Republic

http://www.berkshireeagle.com/local/ci_19677553

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More Nursing Home Residents going home

Forty-three states have received federal funding to help transfer Medicaid beneficiaries from nursing homes to their communities, a new analysis finds.
The Money Follows the Person demonstration program, which was started five years ago and was expanded under the Affordable Care Act, had successfully transferred a total of 17,000 nursing home residents back into their communities as of Aug. 11, 2011, according to an analysis by the Kaiser Family Foundation's Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured.

More Medicaid beneficiaries are undergoing nursing home-to-community transfers, report finds - McKnight's Long Term Care News

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Nursing Home Population to Expand

According to an article in hivehealthmedia.com,
there are 3.8 million nursing home residents over the age of 65 , and the senior citizen population will increase  to over 72 million by 2030.

This means nursing homes will see over 5 million patients in 2020 and 6.6 million in 2030. With medical advances it is likely  that nursing home populations will be bigger.

http://www.hivehealthmedia.com/nursing-home-abuse-grow-future/

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The Nursing Home Exodus

When Edwin Murphy was 91 he was transferred to a local nursing home for rehab and he developed pressure ulcers on both hips. He wanted to go home . Unlike some nursing home residents, he still had a home.
He didn't feel he could enjoy life being "institutionalized.” Moving disabled people out of nursing homes back into the community has become a focus for Medicaid, which now is shifting its priorities to spending more long-term care dollars on community services and less on institutions such as nursing homes.
To that end, every person admitted to a nursing home now is asked The Question: “Do you want to talk to someone about the possibility of returning to the community?” The Question is posed quarterly thereafter.

The Nursing Home Exodus, Part 2 - NYTimes.com

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