Discrepencies in Nursing Home Staff Repots

Nov 20, 2014
Paul M. da Costa

We have previously blogged about problems in staffing throughout nursing homes across the country.  To add to the issue, The Center for Public Integrity recently reported discrepancies in the amount of registered nurse care given to patients in various facilities.  Nursing homes self-report the amount of registered nurse care that they provide to patients on a public website, Nursing Home Compare.  Financial documents from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), the government agency that oversees nursing homes, show that the self-reported data of time spent providing registered nurse services, in many cases, is significantly lower than that obtained through CMS’s own reports.

The problem with this discrepancy is that the public relies on the information available online to decide if and where it will choose to provide nursing home services to its loved ones, leading to a largely misinformed public.  Analysts found that this misinformation was the case for approximately 25% of nursing homes listed on the public website. The lack of appropriate care has been shown to increase the chance of injury or death among nursing home residents.

Although the Affordable Care Act required that nursing homes no longer self-report staff information, but instead would submit payroll information to determine staffing, this requirement has yet to take full effect.  In the meantime, thousands of nursing home residents receive substandard care without regulation of actual care provided.

If you or a loved one has been neglected, abused, or injured by the negligence of a nursing home, you can gain compensation for that harm.  The experienced attorneys at Sarno da Costa D’Aniello Maceri LLC can help you with your medical malpractice and nursing home malpractice case and make sure that your injuries receive adequate justice.  Call us today at 973-274-5200.