From 2015 till date, over 900 nursing homes have changed ownership structures, increasing the percentage of for-profit nursing homes to over 70% in the U.S. While this new structure attracts more investors, concerns have been growing about the quality of care provided to patients.
In March 2024, reports emerged from the Scandia Village nursing home in Sister Bay, Wisconsin, about declining patient care. Continuum Healthcare, a for-profit owner, now runs this nursing home after the Evangelical Lutheran Good Samaritan Society sold it to Sanford Health in 2019.
Shelly Olson, a nurse who formerly worked with Scandia Village, reports that the care quality began declining with the transition of ownership to Sanford Health in 2019. She says the facility was regularly short-staffed, causing increased wait time and reduced attention to patients.
The situation is similar in Southern California, where Grace Song, a 92-year-old fall-risk patient, complains about the Berkley East Healthcare Center. After spending a month in the facility, Song reports experiencing neglect from her caregivers, which investigators found to be a pattern at the facility.
Commenting on Song’s situation, David Grabowski, a Harvard professor specializing in nursing home policies, highlights that such neglect and substandard care are a trend with for-profit nursing homes, which now dominate the sector.
Speaking on the difficulty of solutions, Grabowski highlights the complicated nature of ownership structures with investors and real estate companies involved. Thus, it is difficult to assign liability or even track financing, as it is currently impossible to tell how these for-profit owners use taxpayers’ monies.
While all these factors remain unclear, one stands out clearly: the American senior citizens are paying the price.
Appalled by the current situation in these nursing homes, more registered nurses are leaving the facilities as Olson left Scandia Village, leaving the facilities with fewer registered nurses, lower quality ratings, and increased safety violations.
As a result, researchers, regulators, and consumer advocates are now raising concerns, calling for investigations into these for-profit chains taking over the nursing home sector. Government officials also seek regulations against this trend to protect the nation’s most vulnerable citizens.
The Government responded in November 2023 with a regulation requiring all nursing home facilities to provide more information about their facility ownership and management structure.
However, Professor David Grabowski argues that improved ownership data cannot explain the flow of taxpayers’ monies in the nursing home sector.
Unfortunately, poor quality care is not the only negative trend in nursing homes following their takeover by for-profit owners. Research has shown a widespread increase in inflated rent and management fees in these homes in an attempt to increase profit for investors.
Nursing home patients now pay more for less. Sadly, despite the clamoring for an improved nursing home sector, there’s still no federal regulation protecting residents from elderly abuse in nursing homes.
Understandably, many families are concerned about the welfare of their elderly parents in nursing homes. If a family member is a victim of improper care or abuse at a nursing home, contact a legal professional for a nursing home abuse lawsuit to restore order and get good compensation.
