Bipartisan effort to provide families with vital data on struggling nursing homes

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Any kind of bipartisan effort in today’s toxic political climate is reason to cheer. When it involves uncovering nursing homes offering substandard care, it’s all the more reason for caregivers to be grateful.

Pennsylvania senators Bob Casey (D) and Pat Toomey (R) joined forces to release a report titled, “Families’ and Residents’ Right to Know: Uncovering Poor Care in America’s Nursing Homes.”

An investigation into reports of abuse and neglect at nursing homes in the senators’ home state prompted the report. It focuses on struggling nursing homes that have been designated a Special Focus Facility. There are 88 nursing homes that are participants in the program. Approximately 400 nursing homes are identified as candidates. Participants receive more frequent inspections and are identified to the public; candidates are not.

What the senators wanted family caregivers like you and I to know are the names of the hundreds of SFF candidate facilities, so that we can make the most informed decision possible when it comes to our loved one’s care.

You can review a list of SFF participant and candidate facilities that’s included in the report. You can also read disturbing reports of neglect and abuse that has been reported at these facilities, which includes allowing residents to escape, providing inadequate medical care and sexual assault.

I discovered a facility that my father stayed at briefly post-surgery. At the time, the facility admitted they did not have the resources to care for my father, who was in the mid-stages of dementia and often wandered.

Much more needs to be done to ensure that our nation’s nursing homes are providing proper care to our loved ones, but providing this bit of information helps families make more informed choices.