Tuesday, May 4, 2010

'An Act to Protect Nursing Home Residents'

The author of a bill aimed at protecting nursing home patients is praising state Rep. Harriett Stanley for her role in moving the legislation forward in a new form.

Dr. Rachel Geller penned An Act to Protect Nursing Home Residents over three years ago to protect people in nursing homes from abuse after Geller had a bad experience with her aunt, Sally Miller.

Sally Geller Miller, living with advanced Alzheimer's disease, was shuttled between five nursing homes in a seven-year period before being stranded for weeks in a hospital's locked psychiatric ward after being kicked out of one home.

It is an experience that has led state Rep. Ruth B. Balser, a Newton Democrat, to propose a law to better inform patients and family members about nursing home regulations.

"The existing problem is there are already very good laws on the books, yet nursing homes routinely lie, break the laws, follow illegal procedures and omit information," Geller said. "Because we as 'consumers' of nursing homes are unfamiliar with the nursing home regulations, we are automatically inclined to believe everything told to us by a nursing home."

Full Article and Source:
Stanley Puts Her Stamp on Nursing Home Bill

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

For Profit Business is... for profit! Corners are cut to make more money and the residents are the ones who suffer.

Anonymous said...

Hats off to Dr. Rachel Geller!

Max said...

This is great. The elderly and disabled so need protection in these "homes."

helensniece said...

Why does it take a personal experience to take action?

Anonymous said...

Aren't nursing homes required by law to provide residents and family with copies of the state nursing home Bill of Rights?

Anonymous said...

What good does a bill do, if it is NOT ENFORCED????? State comes in and reads documents on the patients(documents are false), then everything goes back to square one.