Beasley, Allen, Crow, Methvin, Portis & Miles, P.C.

Nursing homes that serve primarily Hispanic residents provide a lower quality of care compared to nursing homes that cater to a mostly white clientele, according to a Brown University study. The research, which was recently published in the Journal of the American Medical Directors Association, looked at the rate of bedsores at nursing homes in select states and found that residents in nursing homes with a larger concentration of Hispanic residents reported having more bedsores than nursing homes with lower concentrations of Hispanic residents.

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Shirley Gerhardt admitted her 76-year-old husband Richard into Laurel Canyon nursing home in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in December of 2005. He has suffered a broken hip and just couldn’t get around well. On Christmas day, Gerhardt was placed on a bedpan, and forgotten by staff. He sat there, on the bedpan, for 24 hours as the pan began to imbed into his skin. He suffered an open wound that became infected and lead to his death just five days later, according to Wired PR News.

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This week, members of the U.S. Senate will consider a bill that will establish a nationwide system of background checks for individuals who apply for jobs at long-term care facilities, The Daily Times (Farmington, New Mexico) reported today. If passed, the Patient Safety and Abuse Prevention Act would allow nursing homes to choose not to hire potentially abusive caregivers based on a coordinated system of checks against abuse and neglect registries, state police records and the FBI national database of criminal history records.

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A review of the nation’s nursing home inspection reports by the Congressional Government Accountability Office (GAO) lists Alabama among nine states with the worst records of nursing home inspection accuracy, saying inspectors missed serious problems in more than 25 percent of all inspections from 2002-2007. The report said most states still fared dismally, missing at least one serious deficiency in 15 percent of all inspections.

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