health department: Wellness

Nursing Home Abuse Cases Occurring at Alarming Rate in New York

1.6 million families in New York and around the country turn to nursing homes to provide their elderly and ill loved ones with compassionate medical care. Over the next thirty years, as the baby boomer population ages, as many as 5 million elderly Americans will be living in nursing homes. Despite the prevalence and popularity of nursing homes, however, there is a dark side to them. While families chose nursing care with an expectation of professionalism, kindness and compassion, they often are health department faced instead with a shocking reality: nursing home neglect and abuse.

Nursing home abuse violations, including physical, emotional and sexual abuse, as well as nursing home negligence, are a serious concern in nursing homes across the United States. Nowhere is this truer than in New York State. These types of violations are especially insidious since elderly and health department disabled residents are unable to protect themselves from an attack. In many cases, they are not even able to communicate the abuse they have suffered to their family members, and hence they have neither recourse against nor protection from future abuse.

According to a 2001 Congressional Report, one in three U.S. nursing homes has been cited for abuse. In New York, the statistics are even more alarming. Even homes that receive a so-called "clean bill of health" during the health department's annual inspections are not health department immune to violations of their residents.

For example, in December 2006, an employee of a nursing home in Rochester was fired after an investigation into his abuse of three patients, one of whom died two days after the abuse. The home had just months earlier passed the health department's inspections.

According to the Congressional report, the number of nursing homes that is cited for abuse is increasing, and has been every year since 1996. For example, the number of nursing homes cited for abuse during annual inspections more than doubled between 1996 and 2000. While these statistics are appalling, of even greater concern are the incidents of unreported abuse.

In fact, officials believe that abuse is grossly underreported; some experts even say that the majority of abuse incidents go unreported. At particular risk are health department nursing home patients without the mental or physical faculties to be aware of -- or even to articulate -- the abuse they are suffering at the hands of their supposed caregivers.

In some New York counties, as many as one-half of all seniors live in nursing homes; the state average is one in four New Yorkers over the age of eighty-five living in nursing or hospice care situations. Given the national rates of nursing home abuse and the alarmingly high number of incidents in New York State, New Yorkers are undoubtedly at risk.

If you or a loved one has been the victim of nursing home abuse or neglect, please contact a qualified attorney who can assist you in getting the compensation you deserve for damages suffered from such abuse or neglect.
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