Over 90% of Nursing Homes Employ At Least One Worker with a Criminal History

When the Inspector General of the Department of Health and Human Services, Daniel R. Levinson, checked the names of more than 35,000 nursing home employees with the Federal Bureau of Investigation to see if they had criminal records, he found that 92% of nursing homes employed at least one person with a criminal conviction. Nearly half of all nursing homes employed five or more persons with at least one criminal conviction, according to a recently released report on the results of the investigation.

Mr. Levinson blamed a lack of clear regulations, and noted that given inconsistencies between regulations in different states, people convicted of a crime in one state have been able to find a job at a nursing home in another state. The report’s findings show that nursing homes are not doing enough to protect vulnerable residents from abuse or exploitation by employees.

If you or someone you know has been the victim of abuse or neglect in a nursing home or assisted living facility, you may contact Benjamin Gideon at bgideon@bermansimmons.com

A New York Times article on the report can be found at:
Study Finds Criminal Pasts of Nursing Home Workers

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 3rd, 2011 at 11:45 am and is filed under Misc.. The entry is tagged under You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.