Causes
Nothing can justify the shameful and tragic abuse and neglect of nursing home patients.
However, certain factors can play a role in this widespread problem. Although numerous and complex, these root causes have one thing in common—economics.
With a widening gap between Medicaid payments and actual costs of care, nursing home facilities must often cope with severely limited resources. Following are some examples of how cost-cutting and cost-containment measures may affect the quality of care and the frequency of abuse:
Stressful working conditions, including:
- Staffing shortages
- Heavy patient loads
- Excessive and mandatory overtime
- Low wages, requiring many caregivers to work at two jobs in order to make ends meet
- Poor staff training, particularly when it comes to how to manage patients with dementia. These patients pose the greatest challenge to caregivers.
- Limited background checks. Only state background checks are required for nursing staff. No background checks are required for support personnel or patients.
- Inadequate resources to conduct investigations. Each state has a long-term care ombudsman program to identify and investigate complaints of nursing home negligence. However, these programs are often staffed by volunteers and subject to political pressure, which limits their effectiveness.