Perspective               

Study Finds 90 Percent of Nursing Homes Don't Have Enough Staff

In a study of nursing homes around the country, the Department of Health and Human Services has found that over 90 percent of homes do not have enough staff to take proper care of patients. It is recommended that nursing homes have at least one nurse's aide for every five to six patients from 7a.m. to 11p.m. The study found, however, that nursing homes usually have one nurse's aide for every 8 to 14 residents. Nursing homes with too few nurses per patient were more likely to provide poor quality care, the study showed. Patients in these homes were more likely to experience bed sores, malnutrition, weight loss, dehydration, pneumonia, and serious blood-borne infections.

To reach sufficient staff levels, the study says nursing homes would have to hire an additional 280,000 to 474,000 registered nurses, licensed practical nurses, and nurse's aides. Nursing home executives say that it would be very hard to find the additional workers. And the government, who helps pay for 75 percent of nursing home patients through Medicare and Medicaid, says it will cost too much. According to the report, it would cost $7.6 billion a year to reach sufficient staff levels.

Consumer advocates recommend setting minimum staffing levels for nursing homes and say that if nursing homes had more workers they would save money and lives by preventing many problems that require patients to be hospitalized. But the Bush administration says it has no plans to set staff level requirements. Instead, it wants to publish data on the number of workers at each nursing home, in hopes that staff levels may increase because of "the market demand created by an informed public." The administration says that it will also encourage nursing homes to improve their management strategies, so nurse's aides can attain "high productivity."

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