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Date: November 25, 2024 Mon
Time: 8:05 pm
Time: 8:05 pm
Results for nursing homes
2 results foundAuthor: Disability Rights California, Investigations Unit Title: Vitimized Twice: Abuse of Nursing Home Residents, No Criminal Accountability for Perpetrators Summary: Nursing homes have become an indelible part of our health care landscape. These facilities provide 24 hour inpatient skilled nursing and supportive care to residents whose disability or condition necessitate the availability of skilled nursing care on an extended basis. It is estimated that over 40% of Americans will use a nursing home at some point in their lives and, as the population of individuals 65 years of age and older grows, the demand for skilled nursing care is not expected to decrease in the next two decades. Unfortunately, the United States General Accounting Office and others confirm that nursing home residents are often victimized by the very caregivers with whom they are entrusted. Much of the abuse rises to the level of criminal conduct. Yet, few cases are reported to or investigated by law enforcement and even fewer are criminally prosecuted. Simply put, crimes against nursing home residents are less likely to be reported, investigated, and prosecuted than crimes against individuals living in the community. They are often treated as licensing or administrative matters and not as crimes. It is time to highlight and address biases and lapses in the abuse response system to ensure that nursing home residents are provided equal access to the criminal justice system and equal protection from criminal abuse by caregivers. This report describes 12 cases of physical and sexual abuse of nursing home residents by caregivers and traces the handling of these crimes through California’s abuse response and criminal justice systems. The cases were gleaned from licensing citation reports issued by the State’s Department of Public Health (DPH) which confirmed the facts and determined the facility was liable for resident abuse. Details: Sacramento: Disability Rights California, 2010. 44p. Source: Internet Resource: http://www.disabilityrightsca.org/pubs/548801.pdf Year: 2010 Country: United States URL: http://www.disabilityrightsca.org/pubs/548801.pdf Shelf Number: 120898 Keywords: Elder Abuse (California)Elderly Victims of CrimeNursing HomesSexual Abuse |
Author: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Office of Inspector General Title: Nursing Facilities' Employment of Individuals with Criminal Convictions Summary: Federal regulation prohibits Medicare and Medicaid nursing facilities from employing individuals found guilty of abusing, neglecting, or mistreating residents by a court of law, or who have had a finding entered into the State nurse aide registry concerning abuse, neglect, or mistreatment of residents or misappropriation of their property. Interpretive guidelines from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) for this regulation state that “[nursing] facilities must be thorough in their investigations of the past histories of individuals they are considering hiring.” However, Federal law does not require that nursing facilities conduct State or Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) criminal background checks. State background check requirements vary in terms of what must be checked (e.g., statewide criminal history databases, publically available sex offender registries) and who must be checked (e.g., direct-care workers only, all staff). We selected a stratified random sample of 260 nursing facilities from the universe of 15,728 Medicare-certified nursing facilities and requested data on all individuals who were employed by the sampled nursing facilities on June 1, 2009. To gain access to criminal history record information, we entered into an Information Transfer Agreement with FBI. We compared employee data with the criminal history records FBI provided to identify individuals with criminal convictions employed by the sampled nursing facilities. Consistent with the congressional request and objective of this evaluation, we used FBI data to determine whether individuals employed by nursing facilities had criminal convictions. FINDINGS Almost all nursing facilities employed one or more individuals with at least one criminal conviction. Our analysis of FBI-maintained criminal history records revealed that 92 percent of nursing facilities employed at least one individual with at least one criminal conviction. Nearly half of nursing facilities employed five or more individuals with at least one conviction. Forty-four percent of employees with convictions were convicted of crimes against property (e.g., burglary, shoplifting, writing bad checks), making it the most common type of crime committed. Overall, 5 percent of nursing facility employees had at least one conviction in FBI-maintained criminal history records. Most convictions occurred prior to employment. Eighty-four percent of employees with convictions had their most recent conviction prior to their beginning date of employment. Despite the lack of a Federal requirement for nursing facilities to conduct criminal background checks, most States required, and/or nursing facilities reported conducting, some type of background check. Forty-three States required nursing facilities to conduct either an FBI or a statewide criminal background check for prospective employees. Some nursing facilities located in the remaining eight States reported conducting criminal background checks even though they were not required to do so. All but 2 percent of nursing facilities reported conducting some type of background check. RECOMMENDATION After completion of our data collection, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (P.L. 111-148) became Federal law. It requires the Secretary of Health & Human Services (HHS) to carry out a nationwide program for States to conduct national and statewide criminal background checks for direct patient access employees of nursing facilities and other providers. States may participate in this National Background Check Program by entering into agreements with the Secretary. In light of our findings and in carrying out the mandate for HHS to implement the nationwide criminal background check program, we recommend that CMS: Develop background check procedures. To ensure that States conduct background checks consistently, CMS should (1) clearly define the employee classifications that are direct patient access employees and (2) work with participating States to develop a list of State and local convictions that disqualify an individual from nursing facility employment under the Federal regulation and periods for which each conviction bars the individual from employment. Details: Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General, 2011. 33p. Source: Internet Resource: OEI-07-09-00110: Accessed April 27, 2011 at: http://oig.hhs.gov/oei/reports/oei-07-09-00110.pdf Year: 2011 Country: United States URL: http://oig.hhs.gov/oei/reports/oei-07-09-00110.pdf Shelf Number: 121509 Keywords: Criminal Background ChecksElder AbuseNursing Homes |