Under the new law, nursing homes would no longer be fined for not having competent, licensed administrators or caregivers in their facilities; not having a qualified nurse on duty, or for understaffing at the facility, one of the leading contributors to resident neglect.

The few fines that can be imposed can be reduced by 35 percent if the nursing home agrees not to formally appeal the state’s findings. Financial penalties for intentionally killing or injuring residents will be doubled, though state regulators say such violations are unlikely.

A spokesman for the governor’s office said the bill was signed to “promote better care by encouraging nursing homes to develop pro-active quality assurance programs and allowing facilities to identify and correct problems right away.”

John Tapscott, an advocate for Iowa seniors said the new law “only proves that our legislative leaders and governor are willing to sell out the most vulnerable of our citizens – the sick and elderly residing in nursing homes – for a few thousand campaign dollars.” The bill was opposed by the Iowa Department of Elder Affairs and the Iowa Department of Inspections and Appeals.

The legislation was supported by the Iowa Healthcare Association, which last year made political contributions totaling nearly $90,000.

SOURCE: Nursing Home Abuse › Nursing homes that jeopardize safety no longer face fines in Iowa

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However, of the 37,150 complaints inspectors received in 2007 about the condition of nursing homes, only 39 percent were substantiated and about 20 percent of those verified complaints involved patient neglect.

Measuring the quality of a nursing home is not always clear-cut. More that 1.5 million people live in 15,000 nursing homes throughout the country. Each facility is inspected annually and must meet federal standards in order to participate in Medicaid and Medicare. Unfortunately, while the standards are the same from state to state, deficiency rates vary.

“Inspectors are subjective and inconsistent. They interpret federal standards in different ways,” the Times quotes Bruce A. Yarwood, president of trade group American Health Care Association. Thus, some states show much higher percentages of deficient nursing homes than others, in what may not necessarily indicate a vast difference in quality of service.

In December, the Bush administration will institute a five-star system to rate overall quality of care in nursing facilities. The rankings will be published on a federal Web site, according to the New York Times report.

SOURCE: Nursing Home Abuse › Gauging nursing home care quality can be tricky

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