Throughout Florida investors are buying up nursing homes, then cutting staff to increase profits. Many of these homes are being purchased by large hedge funds and other private investment companies They treat the nursing homes like a commercial business. They fire expensive trained staff and replace them with cheaper labor and less staff. The problem is that nursing homes do not sell widgets, they are intended to care for the helpless. Now it is becoming clear that nursing home abuse is becoming rampant.
According to the New York Times:
The typical nursing home acquired by a large investment company before 2006 scored worse than national rates in 12 of 14 indicators that regulators use to track ailments of long-term residents. Those ailments include bedsores and easily preventable infections, as well as the need to be restrained. Before they were acquired by private investors, many of those homes scored at or above national averages in similar measurements
This needs to stop. We need to protect our elderly from profit mongers. In the meantime, if you have a family member in a nursing home, visit often, look closely, and smell carefully. If you do not your loved one may suffer. if you have never witnessed the horror of unchecked bedsores you should before you entrust your loved one to one of these investment company owned facilities.
For more information on this subject, please refer to the section on Medical Malpractice and Negligent Care.
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