Some senior-care homes say they don’t have the ability to lift fallen residents. Many have adopted “no lift” policies to avoid the risk of back injuries for staff and other potential liabilities...A nurse wo worked at an assisted-living facility in Greensboro, N.C., who requested anonymity because she was not authorized to speak with the media, said her company required caretakers to call 911 even if a resident had just slid harmlessly out of a chair.“If you’re on the floor, period, you’d have to call,” said the nurse, who left her position last year. She said residents were often embarrassed by the lift-assist calls. Some begged her not to dial 911. She said she had no choice.Fire officials point out they bring no special skill to such situations — it’s just a matter of who’s doing the work...Lift assists are now the seventh most common type of 911 call, with an average of 1,800 lift-assist calls every day nationwide, according to an analysis of the National Fire Incident Reporting System, which collects emergency calls from more than 23,000 fire departments...A growing number of cities and towns — from Rocklin, Calif., to Naples, Fla., to Lincoln, Neb. — have started pushing back with special fees of $100 to $800 for senior lift-assist calls... In Mequon, Wis., the fee is billed directly to the facility to emphasize that it’s the company’s responsibility, said Deputy Fire Chief Kurt Zellmann.“We tell them they can’t pass that onto the patient,” he said. But they can’t prohibit it...Assisted-living facilities appear to make far more 911 calls for lift assists than nursing homes, which have higher staffing requirements, according to Ron Nunziato, senior policy director at the Health Care Council of Illinois, which represents nursing homes. Nunziato said he rarely called 911 for a lift assist at a nursing home during the three decades that he ran a company that included both nursing homes and assisted-living facilities.“We had enough staff and equipment to get someone off the floor, out of the tub, whatever the case may be,” Nunziato said, adding: “We don’t believe that skilled nursing facilities are causing the concern.”
More details and commentary at The Washington Post.
The US health care system: roughly twice as expensive as any of the other top 20 wealthiest nations, but providing the worst care (yet another example in the above post) and outcomes.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/issue-briefs/2023/jan/us-health-care-global-perspective-2022
Interesting link. Thank you.
DeleteEven the richest Americans don't get as good of care as the average for other nations: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/fullarticle/2774561
DeleteSome of America's bad socioeconomic outcomes are entirely driven by the bottom few % of Americans; this one is not.
I had to go to the ER last week. An ambulance dropped off an elderly man with dementia in the waiting room. He kept wandering away, trying to leave or get into other parts of the hospital. He insisted someone had taken his slippers. Another patient in the waiting room and I kept leading him back, talking to him, making sure he was safe. A nurse came by once as I was leading him back to the waiting room and asked me if I was his carer. I said no, I'm waiting here for my chest pains, but no one was with him. She panicked and told a security guard to watch him and told me I didn't need to. The security guard promptly left the room and the other patient and I continued to care for this man until he was given a bed.
ReplyDeleteI won't write here the neglect my mother faced in a nursing home where she was supposed to be recuperating. The level of elder care in the United States is criminal.
The level of ..... care in the United States is criminal.
DeleteFixed that.
You can't provide care when you're worried about profit.
A friend of mine was in a practice with other doctors as is normal. One colleague retired and sold his (controlling) share to a hedge fund which immediately started nickeling and diming all the care for more profit. My friend left as well and started their own practice. Could not work under the pressure and knowingly provide insufficient care.
This is how health care kills people.
Health care is a service, not a profit center.
Crowboy's link is shocking but easy to explain.
ReplyDeleteWe have the finest government that money can buy.
xoxoxoBruce
This sounds a lot like the stores whose insurance policies forbid their employees from stopping shoplifters. The thieves come in again and again and the public pays the price.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.marketwatch.com/story/liberal-lawmakers-accuse-nursing-home-operators-of-greed-d3e60e31?mod=home-page
DeleteMy Grandpa R. Loved his last years in a home in Boston. It was a low budget but caring facility. His room was full of folding card tables and light furniture that would break if he fell, and break his fall.
ReplyDelete