Author Archives: Adam Peck

The CMS (Medicare) cites about 15% of nursing homes each year for deficiencies in infection control, according to a study in the May issue of the American Journal of Infection Control. Infections contribute to more than 380,000 deaths annually among nursing home residents, and cost estimates associated with such infections can reach as high as $2 billion.

Researchers analyzed eight years of nursing home certification data, looking for infection control, or F-Tag 441, citations. While the per-year average citation rate was 15%, that number has actually trended upward, increasing from 12.87% in 2000 to 17.31% in 2007, according to the study. Adherence to infection-control certification standards varied from state to state, the authors found, and citations correlated strongly with low staffing levels and nursing homes’ for-profit status.

“Our analysis may provide some clues as to the reason for the persistent infection control problems in nursing homes,” indicates California Nursing Home Abuse and Neglect Attorney Steven Peck.

“Most significantly, the issue of staffing is very prominent in our findings; that is, for all three caregivers examined (i.e., nurse aides, LPNs and RNs) low staffing levels are associated with F-Tag 441 citations. With low staffing levels, these caregivers are likely hurried and may skimp on infection-control measures, such as hand hygiene.” Peck says.

Understaffing affects nursing home employees by causing high turnover, low morale, fatigue and physical injuries. Poorly paid nursing assistants provide the most direct care, and demands placed upon them are often impossible to meet says San Diego Nursing Home Abuse and Neglect Attorney Steven Peck,

Profit-driven multi million dollar corporations that own these institutions must be held accountable. The private-pay charge for a nursing home room is more than $5,000 a month. The charge for Medicaid residents is lower but still substantial. Yet, these facilities continue to be understaffed which causes our elder and dependant adults to be seriously neglected.

Medicare patients at St. Joseph’s Medical Center in Yonkers, N.Y., had the second-highest rate of severe bed sores in the country, according to an analysis of Medicare data between Oct. 1, 2008, and June 30, 2010, by the Sunlight Foundation Reporting Group on medical errors.

Medicare patients at St. Joseph’s suffered 13 instances of severe bed sores during their stay requiring additional treatment, a rate of nearly 2.9 per 1,000 treated, according to the report. At nearby St. John’s Riverside Hospital, the rate was 20 times lower: Only one severe bed sore was reported, even though the larger St. John’s discharged 8,270 Medicare patients during the period, compared with St. Joseph’s 4,541.

Bed sores–pressure ulcers–are one of the conditions that the federal government is increasingly unwilling to pay for. Earlier this month, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced the Partnership for Patients, a new national effort that is meant to stop millions of preventable injuries and complications in patient care over the next three years. The federal agency said the initiative has the potential to save up to $35 billion in health care costs nationally, including up to $10 billion for Medicare.

The federal government is asking hospitals to focus on nine types of medical errors and complications where the potential for dramatic reductions in harm rates has already been documented. They include pressure ulcers, as well as preventing adverse drug reactions, childbirth complications and surgical site infections.