Dignity for the Aged has tried using Bayside of Poquoson, a small 60 bed facility to identify practical ways to improve residents daily lives.  We believe nursing home residents should remain valued and included members of the community.  We have witnessed neglect, abuse, and sadly sometimes death at several facilities due to understaffing. 

My Mother in Law had two black eyes, a head abrasion and a skin tear, no one could or would tell us what happened.  We took this incident and had it investigated by the Attorney General.  We were told it would take about 2 years, after the two year period, I called to find out the status.  I was told the case was closed.  I asked what the results of the investigation were, and was told (OLD PEOPLE FALL, and the facility was UNDERSTAFFED)  Really?  It took 2 years, they did not contact me, and I saw no official report.  That answer had nothing to do with my Mother-in Law, she was bedridden and when I asked the nursing staff what happened to her, they said "We don't know, it must have happened during our "shift change".  So no answer from the nursing home and no answer from the Attorney General and his investigation, and no lawyer would take the case because they said  it wasn't catastrophic enough (in other words, they could not make enought money.  My Mother in Law was paying $10,000 a month and they didn't feed her, change her, dress her or brush her teeth.  She was bed ridden and became non verbal, she was given other patients medications, and lost weight.  They were waking her up at 4 in the morning to give her a shower because it was easier for the night shift, they would put her in a ratty hospital gown (not even her own clothes) and put her back to bed.  The lack of staffing is a Blinding Flash of the Obvious problem leading to abuse, neglect and death.  It appears as though making profits is the focus and no one bats an eye. 

Have you looked at the cost reports, Have you seen the amount of money going to Related Parties?  Please read Ernie Tosh's 2023 Report "Where do the Millions of Dollars Go"  It is all explained, easy to understand and yet no one takes the time.  This has been going on far too long, and Virginia Nursing Homes are a mess.  We should be ashamed to even allow anyone in them, my dogs are given better care. 

I have served on Study 932 where one of the recommendations was to hire the Deaf, Blind and Felons to work in nursing homes to increase the workforce, and we wonder why there is an increased amount of abuse, neglect and death.  I challenge some of these panels and people who are organizing these meetings to actually go into a nursing home unannounced, without the fan fare and see and hear what is going on.   These residents are not all just "old"  they are people with serious medical conditions and they need proper staff, and enough staff to care for them properly. 

Just as a test:  Pretend you are thirsty, and there is no one to get you a cup of water so you wait until dinner to get something to drink.  Then after dinner, you have to go the bathroom, and there is no one to take you.  Then you decide to stop drinking water because no one will take you to the bathroom, then you get a UTI, and you die, true story, happens all the time. 

So if you look at the cost reports, there is definitely enough money to run a nursing home and hire the proper staff, we just have too many people making profit instead of providing the care.  It's called FRAUD.  Mary Adelaid Mendelson's book Tender Loving Greed (1974) describes how the incredibly lucrative nursing home industry is exploiting America's old people and Defrauding US ALL.  Ms Mendelson received the George C. Polk Award for her efforts despite the effort to kill the book by the Chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on Long Term Care.  The Nursing Home Reform Act of 1987 was established and fueled by the financial corruption and resident neglect and the findings in this book layed the groundwork.  That was back in 1974, here we are  50 years later and NOTHING has changed.   

1. Draining Public Funds:  Nursing Home operators are still skimming millions from Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement for private profit rather than spending it on patient care. 
2. Hidden Ownership:  Complex corporate structures and front men hide who truly owned the profited from the facilities, preventing public accountability.
3. Severe Neglect:  Profit-driven cost-cutting resulted in severe understaffing, poor food, unsanitary conditions, and lack of medical attention for vulnerable residents.

So now we have Residents Rights, which are a joke, they have no freedoms to choose activities, they have bingo or TV, that will really add a quality to your daily life!  These  are not enforced in many facilities, the residents don't know they have rights, and many have no choices at all.  There are very few choices, privacy, dignity, respect or freedom or independent choices.  The environment itself in many cases is drab, dull and routine.

If a family member chooses to say anything, they run the risk of retribution towards their loved one, so many times nothing is said. If they submit a complaint, they receive an electronic letter response with a phone number where no one answers the phone.

The ombudsman program on the surface seems to be helpful, and yet most residents have never heard of an ombudsman, or know what they do.  Many of the ombudsman have 30 facilities that they oversee, so in reality, they are overworked and cannot begin to accomplish the task ahead of them.  The ombudsman program seems like a light of hope if you do know about it, but the reality is, the ombudsman  are only there to mediate, they have NO Authority to make changes or improve anything.  So the Ombudsman are overworked and can't really do anything as they have their hands tied.  This is another problem that is not seen unless you go to a nursing home and see it first hand.

The sad reality is unless this panel chooses to dig deep and get their hands dirty, this time and the process will again be wasted.  Can we start telling the truth?  Can we stop the FRAUD?  Can we hold people accountable?  Can we hired the right people, pay them a proper wage and develop them as leaders?  In the past, I have seen the "processes" and the "reports" and the "Proclamations", they have done NOTHING.  

People are suffering and dying n nursing homes due to lack of proper care PLAIN and SIMPLE.  The facts are: 

1.  If you don't have enough staff, you cannot care for people properly
2. If all your money goes to profit, residents will be abused, neglected and die
3. Our tax dollars should not be lining anyones pockets 
4. Our residents are the teachers, doctors, veterans, mothers, fathers, etc who built this country and they deserve to live with dignity, respect and good care.

Find the answers, do the right thing, and provide solutions not reports, this could be your loved one.  You are in a position to improved lives, the aging population is not going away, it is growing, think outside the box, use our communities and our ideas, enforce our regulations and be the first step forward to really improving lives, not just on paper.