The Cochran Firm Legal Blog

As our country's population grows older, the demand on our medical system to care for our elderly loved ones has grown considerably. Currently in the United States, there are approximately 34 million people older than 65, and nearly one in twenty of those elderly Americans will eventually require some form of assisted living. At the time of this writing, there are just under 17,000 nursing homes nationwide, and over 70 billion dollars is spent annually to subsidize these facilities.

Our nation's senior citizens are much too frequently becoming the victims of intentional abuse and neglect in our nursing homes and assisted living facilities, especially when those places are understaffed or poorly staffed with uncaring, untrained healthcare professionals.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services recently released a list of the nation's worst nursing homes, a list of 131 facilities with poor inspection records. The list, released Tuesday, March 11, 2008 by the Bush Administration, indicates that 52 of the homes cited as "higher risk" have not shown improvement after they were issued citations while 52 others have shown improvement since being cited.

While most nursing homes do have some deficiencies (with an average being no more than six or seven), the most egregious violators had many more citations. However, publicity about this problem may be doing some good, after all. Out of 54 nursing homes named "poor performers" last year, 21 have shown significant improvement.

Nursing home abuse and neglect is, perhaps, one of the most tragic of all the personal injuries because the victims are often helpless, frail, and unable to defend themselves. Many cases of elder abuse and neglect go unreported because the victims are frightened of further abuse or they do not have the ability to speak out about what they are enduring.

If your elderly loved one has been abused or neglected, there is action you can take. Please contact the nursing home abuse and neglect attorneys at one of The Cochran Firm's numerous offices today.

Labels: main