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Nursing home investigators find widespread deficiencies

Last update: May 14, 2008 - 7:49 PM

The latest: Nursing home inspectors routinely overlook or minimize problems that pose a serious, immediate threat to patients, congressional investigators said in a new report.

Investigators from the Government Accountability Office said found widespread "understatement of deficiencies," including malnutrition, severe bedsores, overuse of prescription medications and abuse of nursing home residents.

The background: More than 1.5 million people live in nursing homes. Nationwide, about one-fifth of the homes were cited for serious deficiencies last year.

Nursing homes are typically inspected once a year by state employees working under contract with the federal government, which sets stringent standards. Federal officials try to validate the work of state inspectors by accompanying them or doing follow-up surveys within a few weeks.

Serious problems: The Government Accountability Office found that state employees had missed at least one serious deficiency in more than 15 percent of their inspections, known as surveys. In nine states, inspectors missed serious problems in more than 25 percent of the surveys from 2002 to 2007.

The nine states most likely to miss serious deficiencies were Alabama, Arizona, Missouri, New Mexico, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee and Wyoming, the report said.

Not acceptable: "Poor quality of care -- worsening pressure sores or untreated weight loss -- in a small but unacceptably high number of nursing homes continues to harm residents or place them in immediate jeopardy, that is, at risk of death or serious injury," the report said.

NEW YORK TIMES