NURSING HOMES PUT PROFIT BEFORE PATIENTS!
Chilling study exposes dangerous greed
MONEY is the root of all evil! Seniors living in cash-hungry nursing homes — run on a for-profit basis — are at double the risk of having health problems caused by bad care, according to a shocking new study from the University of Illinois!
“We saw more — and more serious — diagnoses among residents of for-profit facilities that were consistent with severe clinical signs of neglect, including severe dehydration in clients with feeding tubes which should have been managed, clients with stage three and four bed sores, broken catheters and feeding tubes, and clients whose medication for chronic conditions was not being managed properly,” reveals lead researcher Lee Friedman.
The study analyzed data from more than 1,100 people older than 60 who received treatment at five Chicago-area hospitals for conditions caused by lousy care at nursing homes.
Overall, researchers found the elderly who lived in nonprofit nursing homes and private residences — often with assistance from friends or family — had the least amount of issues related to neglect.
“For-profit nursing facilities pay their high-level administrators more — and so the people actually providing the care are paid less than those working at nonprofit places,” says Friedman. “So staff at forand profit facilities are underpaid need to take care of more residents, which leads to low morale for staff. It’s the residents who suffer.”
Friedman stresses the importance of increased government oversight of nursing homes, as well as better training for medical professionals and improving knowledge about how to properly report suspected neglect or mistreatment.