One in Three US Nursing Homes Cited for Abuse

(CBS)  Families turn to nursing homes to give the elderly the care and attention they need, but a congressional report out today says 1,600 US nursing homes--nearly one-third--have been cited for abuse, including injuries, sexual abuse, even death.

"The idea that residents in nursing homes live in fear of abuse and not able to communicate it to others and that the nursing homes aren't watching enough to catch this sort of thing--it just seems to me is unconscionable," says Representative Henry Waxman (Democrat, California).

Congressional investigators found that one in five nursing homes failed to report incidents or even make sure staffers had no history of abuse. In almost 8% of residents suffered actual harm. And in 256 homes across the country the abuse was so serious it put elderly lives in jeopardy or actually resulted in death.

"It's a lot more than we've ever imagined and certainly a lot more than is acceptable," says Waxman.

It's a shocking reality for thousands of older Americans, a trend CBS News first reported last year with the story of Helen Love. She was attacked by a certified nurse's assistant at a Sacramento facility who had became angered that Love had soiled herself.

"He choked me and went and broke my neck and broke my wrist," said Love.

She died 2 days after that interview. Her assailant got a year in county jail and a CBS News investigation found that three other employees at the same Sacramento facility had been convicted for abuse, which should have barred them from nursing home work.

The nursing home industry agrees on the need for stiffer background checks but disagrees that abuse is widespread.

"The congressman himself said the great majority of long-term care in our nation is excellent. There are people every day that are working very hard to provide that care," said Charles H. Roadman II, president of the American Health Care Association, a nursing home trade group that represents 12,000 nonprofit and for-profit centers and homes for the elderly and disabled.

Still, Congressman Waxman today called for more federal dollars and oversight of the industry to guarantee that America's elderly spend their final years in a safe nursing home, not a house of horrors.
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