Thursday, August 11, 2016

'Failing the Frail' shows lethal errors, poor oversight of Pa. nursing homes

Pennsylvania is growing old.

By 2030, the number of Pennsylvanians over 60 is predicted to reach four million – making up nearly a third of the state's population.

(Illustration by Sue Santola)
And as Pennsylvania grows older, it's expected to become increasingly reliant on nursing homes: facilities tasked with taking care of the state's frailest and most vulnerable citizens.

But as a six-month investigation by PennLive reporters Daniel Simmons-Ritchie and David Wenner found, too many of the state's 700 nursing homes are failing in that duty. Pennsylvania has one of the highest rates of bad nursing homes in the nation and dozens of people have died due to care-related mistakes in recent years.

Furthermore, after poring over federal data and searching through thousands of nursing home inspection reports, they found that state investigations into those incidents appear to be flawed and that punishments are typically weak or non-existent.

The results of that investigation are in PennLive's "Failing the Frail" series, consisting of three major stories and an array of smaller, related stories. You can read the full project here:

PART ONE: Deadly care
PART TWO: Oversight failures
PART THREE: Unpenalized homes
Full Article & Source:
'Failing the Frail' shows lethal errors, poor oversight of Pa. nursing homes

3 comments:

Melanie said...

Wow, this is a great series and a source for important information on nursing homes in Pennsylvania. Thank you for posting, NASGA.

Sheron said...

It's the same in every state. There are good nursing homes but the majority are profit before people.

Nancy said...

Thank you NASGA. This is helpful.