We have written about it before but are regulators and consumers listening? Nursing homes, in an attempt to maximize profit over people, almost uniformly fail to hire a sufficient number of aides and nurses to provide adequate care of its residents. How can one or two nurse aides take care of 15 to 20 residents who need assistance in many of their activities of daily living? The simple answer is they cannot and the resident suffers as a result.
How widespread is the problem? “Ninety-two percent of the nursing homes in the country are not staffed at a level that allows them to provide adequate care,” said Alice Hedt, executive director of the National Citizens’ Coalition for Nursing Home Reform (NCCNHR), which is pushing federal legislation that would mandate specific staffing levels in nursing homes.
In our home state of Virginia, we have no minimum requirements for the number of nurses and nurse aides. It is a crime!
Read an article from The Cincinnati Post on this problem.