Older adults who reside in for-profit nursing homes are nearly twice as likely to have health problems linked to poor care than those in nonprofit nursing homes and those who live in private homes. This is the conclusion of newly released research published in the Journal of Gerontology.
According to a press release from the University of Illinois at Chicago, the researchers, led by Lee Friedman, associate professor of environmental and occupational health sciences in the University of Illinois at Chicago School of Public Health, also found that community-dwelling adults 60 years old and older who need assistance with tasks related to daily living but do not live in a nursing home had the fewest number of clinical signs of neglect compared with those living in any type of nursing facility.
"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 3 and 4 bed sores, broken catheters and feeding tubes, and clients whose medication for chronic conditions was not being managed properly," said study leader Lee Friedman in the press release. Friedman added that substandard care falls within the definition of elder abuse.
The study included more than 1,100 people, aged 60 and older, who were seen in five Chicago-area hospitals between 2007 and 2011 for health problems that could be related to poor care.
Along with finding that neglect-related health problems were more common in for-profit nursing homes than in nonprofits, the researchers also found that community-dwelling patients had fewer of these problems than those in any type of nursing home. Community-dwelling patients need help with daily living but live in private homes, often with family members or friends.
According to the researchers:
"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, so staff at for-profit facilities are underpaid and need to take care of more residents, which leads to low morale for staff, and it's the residents who suffer."
Friedman said more oversight of nursing homes is needed, along with improved screening and reporting of suspected neglect.
This study is unique in that it also included consideration of community based health care residents. The conclusion that non-profit homes are superior to their for-profit competitors, however, is well established. According to the report:
"As reported in prior research, for-profit facilities caring for the patients in this study were significantly inferior across nearly all staffing, capacity, and deficiency measures. Furthermore, the most serious clinical signs were consistently more prevalent among residents of for-profit facilities, including dehydration with presence of gastrostomy, not being provided basic medications to manage chronic conditions, stage 3 or 4 pressure ulcers, and complications with urinary catheters and feeding tubes.
Many studies show that neglect is the most common form of elder mistreatment but is more likely to be overlooked because of its muted nature, although the outcomes of neglect can be as pernicious as physical abuse.
Aging in Place requires planning and accurate information. Implementing an objective to remain at home, a senior or family member acting on his or her behalf may nonetheless be forced to institutional care, even if for only a short period of time. Selecting the institution most likely to provide positive health outcomes is paramount, as is acknowledgement that short-term institutional care can result in long term institutional care if health outcomes are negative.
No comments:
Post a Comment