Nursing Home Complaints Rose by 33% over Four Years

From McKnight's Long Term Care News: complaints filed against nursing homes between and including the years 2011 and 2015 were up by a third, according to a federal report. 

In 2011, there were 47,279 complaints, which had risen to 62,790 by 2015, notes the new report from the Office of Inspector General Report from the Department of Health and Human Services.  More than half were prioritized as high priority or resulting in immediate jeopardy, triggering  onsite investigations within 10 working days. A third of complaints were substantiated, according to the OIG.

The increase in complaints may not reflect declining care quality, authors suggested, but instead, may reflect better options for filing and  tracking the reports.  For those concerned with care quality, however, the increase in complaints suggests that, even if care quality is not decreasing, care quality remains a significant challenge.  More than half of complaints related to quality of care/treatment or resident/patient/client neglect. Examples given included a lack of blood glucose strips for a patient with high blood sugar who was later found deceased, and a resident who called for assistance after a bowel movement and wasn't helped until three and a half hours later.

The summary of the Report reads:

"State survey agencies must conduct onsite investigations within certain timeframes for the two most serious levels of complaints-those that allege serious injury or harm to a nursing home resident and require a rapid response to address the complaint and ensure residents' safety. However, previous reports by OIG and the Government Accountability Office found that States did not conduct onsite investigations within the required timeframes for some of these complaints.

Each year, half of all nursing home complaints were at the level of seriousness that requires a prompt onsite investigation, and the most common allegations among these related to quality of care or treatment. During the period we reviewed, States conducted nearly all the required onsite investigations. Although almost all States conducted most of their onsite investigations within required timeframes, a few States fell short. Furthermore, almost one-quarter of States did not meet CMS's annual performance threshold for timely investigations of high priority complaints in all 5 years. Lastly, States substantiated (i.e., verified with evidence) almost one third of the most serious nursing home complaints.

Tennessee accounted for most of the immediate jeopardy complaints in the five-year period, the report says. Additionally, Tennessee, Arizona, Maryland and New York accounted for almost half of the high priority complaints not investigated onsite within 10 working days.

To read the Report, click here.  To read the OIG's summary and explanation of the Report, click here.

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