Regulating nursing homes: Residential nursing facilities in the United States

doi:10.1136/bmj.323.7311.507

BMJ 2001;323:507-510 ( 1 September )

Education and debate

Regulating nursing homes

Residential nursing facilities in the United States

This is the second in a series of three articles

Charlene Harrington, professor.

Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, University of California at San Francisco, 3333 California Street, San Francisco, CA 94118, USA

chas@itsa.ucsf.edu

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Poor quality care has been an enduring feature of many of the 16 500 residential nursing facilities that provide care to 1.6million people in the United States.¹ Despite three decadesof public concern, government surveys and data collected by thefederal government continue to show that residents of nursinghomes experience problems in their care (figure). In 1998 and1999, 25-33% of nursing homes had serious or potentially lifethreatening problems in delivering care and were harming residents. ³ ⁴ In 1999, state inspectors found that 26% of the nation's nursingfacilities had poor food hygiene; 21% provided care that was inadequate;19% had environments that contributed to injuries in residents;and in 18% pressure sores were treated improperly. The eight mostcommon deficiencies identified in 1999 are shown in the box.²About 77% of facilities that were performing poorly had problemsin subsequent surveys conducted by state licensing and certificationagencies.²

Table Removed (Available Only in the Full Text)

Between 1993 and 1999, there was . . . [Full text of this article]

CiteULike

Complore

Connotea

Del.icio.us Add to Digg

Digg

StumbleUpon Add to Technorati

Technorati What's this?

Relevant Article

Health and welfare of older people in care homes: Marion E T McMurdo and Miles D Witham
BMJ 2007 334: 913-914. [Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]

This article has been cited by other articles:

McMurdo, M. E T, Witham, M. D (2007). Health and welfare of older people in care homes. BMJ 334: 913-914 [Full text]
Mezey, M., Fulmer, T. (2002). The Future History of Gerontological Nursing. Journals of Gerontology Series A: Biological Sciences and Medical Sciences 57: M438-441 [Abstract] [Full text]
Lesser, G. T., Boockvar, K., Polsky, I., Field, T. S., Gurwitz, J. (2002). Underestimation of Adverse Drug Events in Nursing Home Residents. Arch Intern Med 162: 609-610 [Full text]
Walshe, K. (2001). Regulating U.S. Nursing Homes: Are We Learning From Experience?. Health Aff (Millwood) 20: 128-144 [Abstract] [Full text]
Kerrison, S. H, Pollock, A. M (2001). Regulating nursing homes: Caring for older people in the private sector in England. BMJ 323: 566-569 [Full text]