'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

• Failing the frail: Bad care leads to dozens of avoidable deaths in Pa. nursing homes
• How did PennLive determine there were 46 avoidable deaths in Pa. nursing homes?
• A "bad" nursing home opens its doors, claims it was wrongly judged
• Nursing Home Compare: an imperfect tool, but the best available
• What is a nursing home? How old is the average resident? A primer on nursing homes

PART TWO: Oversight failures

• Lawyers, families say regulators overlook avoidable deaths and problems in Pa. nursing homes
• Over past decade, Pa. takes softer approach to penalizing nursing homes
• Q&A: How are nursing homes regulated in Pa.?
• Slideshow: The 17 worst nursing homes in the midstate

PART THREE: Unpenalized homes

• Cause the death of a nursing home resident? That'll be $2,000, thanks
• When picking a nursing home, use your eyes and nose
• Medication mishaps, suffocations, and a homicide – a list of how Pa. nursing home residents died
• Slideshow: The 14 best nursing homes in the midstate

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