Personal Injury Law

Nursing Homes: An Overall lack of care and a Racial Divide

Hurley McKenna & Mertz is familiar with nursing home cases involving abuse and neglect and has two notable settlements of 3,750,000 and 1,200,000 in nursing home cases . An article in the Chicago Reporter by Jeff Kelly Lowenstein reveals that Illinois is one of the worst states for nursing home care, and discusses the racial divide between the level of care provided at nursing home facilities. As a personal injury lawyer I am disappointed in the overall quality of nursing home care in Illinois and am particularly saddened by the apparent discrepancy in care between races.

One terrible incident covered in the Chicago Reporter article talks about the event that lead to a near-death experience and unnecessary emergency room visit for Luzella Roberts. A nurse at International Nursing and Rehabilitation Center performed dialysis in her left arm with a syringe when doctors notes explicitly said dialysis was to take place only through a catheter in her right arm. Her daughter came to visit two hours later to find her face gray and swollen. When she screamed for the nurse to remove the needle, her mother began to bleed uncontrollably and was rushed to the emergency room. Mrs. Roberts nearly lost the arm that had ?for 60 years had cooked dinner for her husband, dressed her four children, and had three weeks earlier cupped her newest great-granddaughter? entirely because of careless caregivers.

The Chicago reporter did further analysis of nursing homes in Illinois and made many shocking discoveries including that Illinois is ?arguably the worst state in the nation for Black senior citizens seeking quality nursing home care.? The reporter analyzed the records of 15,000 nursing homes in Illinois and ranked them on a 1 to 5 scale, 1 being the worst. The worst rating ?was given to 57 percent of [majority] Black nursing homes, compared to 11 percent of [majority] white nursing homes.? Furthermore, an excellent rating was given to 29 percent of white nursing home but zero black nursing homes. Some argue that the disparities are a result of differences in staffing levels and staff qualifications, others feel as though it is ?blatant racism.?

Even when controlling for poverty, The Reporter found that ?poverty did not reduce the inequities. Homes where most people were white got far better care than nursing homes where the majority of residents were black, even if both were poor.? These kind of results necessitate legislative action, but unfortunately very little has been done. Many advocate for stripping the homes with consistent poor ratings of their funding.

Full post as published by Chicago Injury Lawyer Blog on July 17, 2009 (boomark / email).