To really inspect a health facility, they should have decoy patients or residents to actually experience and observe what goes on in that facility on a day to day basis. Or else have an inspector be hired as a staff nurse and work there for a few weeks to see what is really happening.

We are facing a huge increase in the need for quality in nursing home care. It strikes me that for the past almost eight years, our federal government has been run by an administration that has little regard for running good government. With private equity groups like the Carlyle Group taking-over facilities like Manor Care, nursing home care has gotten worse.

The desire for profit margins translates into less staffing at nursing homes, less training for the staff that they do have, less food (or a lower quality of food) for the residents, and less management and oversight. A conflict arises between saving dollars and providing good care.
There would be a much higher level of care given to patients if adequate staffing were provided. However, Administrators benefit from the amount of profit generated by the nursing home they manage, usually paid annual bonuses based on bed-count. They must choose between increasing the profit margins of their individual facilities or supplying more support staff for the care of residents.

Another way residents don’t receive the care they need because of profit concerns, ranges from which ambulance service the nursing home calls, to whether or not a patient even goes to the hospital after a fall or other calamity.

Even nursing home abuse may occur because of the desire for profit. Caregivers who work in nursing homes are often stretched beyond their ability. They try to do the best job that they can, but the lack of additional support restricts what they can do to help patients.

You’ll never catch these discrepancies with facility inspections depending on paperwork to verify patients and residents are getting good care. Self-reported and audited paperwork (data reported by the facilities themselves and no oversight agency verifies audits to ensure that it is even true).