Milwaukee Nursing Home Abuse Attorney Shares Dismal Numbers

Little improvement in low ranked nursing homes

On behalf of Milwaukee personal injury attorney Ric Domnitz of Domnitz & Domnitz, S.C. posted in Nursing Home Abuse on Friday, February 24, 2012.

An analysis of federal data on the quality of care in U.S. nursing homes shows that 564 of them given a one-star rating (out of five) from the U.S. government have not improved at all in the last three years. There are 77,315 beds in these facilities. Many patients, sadly, are subjected to substandard care and sometimes even nursing home abuse.

According to a USA Today article, in some states a significant number of the nursing homes available to care for the elderly and disabled have failed to improve, including several in Wisconsin. The ratings issued by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services place 8 percent of the nursing homes in both Pennsylvania and Louisiana in this lower tier, with over 10 percent of Georgia nursing homes categorized in the weakest category.

Unacceptable conditions at some of these nursing homes might include filthy sanitary conditions, including dirty linens and equipment, mistreatment of the residents and the use of unlicensed and unqualified caregivers or specialists. These conditions were first revealed in 2008 when the federal government started giving ratings to nursing homes.

Bothered by the ratings, some groups in the nursing home industry insist that the ratings are unfair and “simplistic.” Yet the recent ratings update shows that the worst of such homes remain relatively unchanged, and that new patients continued to be placed there when they simply had nowhere else to go.

Nursing homes ranked with one or two star ratings still comprise 35 percent of all nursing homes.

Do you need legal assistance from a Milwaukee personal injury attorney for a case of nursing home abuse? Contact Domnitz & Domnitz, S.C. today for a free initial consultation.