Experts say that over-medication is common in nursing homes nationwide.  If you or someone you know has been harmed in a nursing home, contact Ben Gideon at bgideon@bermansimmons.com for a consultation about your rights.  For more information, see: Deadly Chemical Restraints Kills 3 Nursing Home Residents

The study from Rush University Medical Center in Chicago was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

The Rush University study was in-depth. Researchers analyzed records for 9,318 seniors 65 years of age and older, enrolled between 1993 and 2005 in the Chicago Health and Aging Project, a study of a community-dwelling population. Researchers conducted face-to-face interviews to assess participants’ health histories, physical fitness, cognitive abilities, health behaviors and psychosocial behaviors.

If you or someone you know is facing issues dealing with negligence, abuse or neglect in a nursing home, you can find more information and help at www.bermansimmons.com

When the family of a 71 year old stroke victim in a nursing home noticed bruises and complained to management, management failed to respond.  So the family set up a hidden video camera on a side table in her room.  The camera caught a care worker slapping the resident, pulling her around by the hair, and treating her violently in a shower chair. 

During a 22 day trial against the nursing home on behalf of the resident, who was non-verbal, the jury watched the secret videotape.  After two days of deliberations, it awarded $2.75 million in actual damages against the nursing home, and $5 million in punitive damages.  The nursing home had refused an offer of settlement for $500,000, and had offered nothing in return.   The nursing home was held 40% liable, with the nursing home’s owner and the employee who abused the resident each 20% liable.  The verdict shows that juries are willing to punish nursing homes for failing to protect vulnerable residents from abuse.

For more, see: 7.5M awarded in nursing home abuse case

The interactive database, www.LTCfocUS.org, incorporates information from a number of government sources-Medicare reimbursement claims, OSCAR (CMS’s Online Survey, Certification and Reporting system), the MDS (Minimum Data Set), and Brown’s own survey of state Medicaid policies. Vincent Mor, chairman of the Department of Community Health at Brown, was co-recipient of NCCNHR’s 2009 Public Service Award for his research on racial disparities in nursing homes; and he announced the impending launch of the website in his acceptance speech at the NCCNHR Annual Meeting Oct. 25. Mor demonstrated use of the database to identify racially disparate quality and access to care in two urban areas.

Users can interact with the website by creating interactive maps and tables with comparative information about states, counties, or individual nursing homes. All data provided on the website are also available to download.

Example of Use

Users can choose up to five variables, for example, to create a chart comparing all nursing homes in a state. The broad range of variables from which to choose includes number of beds; for-profit and chain status; percent of Medicare and Medicaid beds; Alzheimer’s units; occupancy rates; age ranges, gender and race of residents; direct care staffing (RN, LPN, CNA); acuity of care; certain MDS quality measures; source of admissions (hospital or home); and 30-day rehospitalization rates (a potential indicator of quality not found on Nursing Home Compare).

The website is sponsored by the National Institute on Aging-funded Shaping Long-Term Care in America project housed at the Brown center. While its stated purposes are to “allow researchers to trace clear relationships between state policies and local market forces and the quality of long-term care” and to allow policymakers “to craft state and local guidelines that promote high-quality, cost-effective, equitable care to older Americans,” Mor also encouraged consumer advocates to use the site.