Can Michigan look forward to much the same?
Just four years since the National Healthcare Corporation (NHC) nursing home fires killed 16 residents in Nashville - and in a year when nursing home violations and admission suspensions are at an all time high - Tennessee nursing homes are seeking unprecedented legal protection from residents who are abused or neglected.
The move came two days after Governor Phil Bredesen announced he will fundamentally restructure how long-term care is handled in Tennessee by expanding alternatives to nursing homes.
State Sen. Jim Tracy (R-Shelbyville) and state Rep. Randy Rinks (D-Savannah) introduced the bill last week that would severely restrict the rights of nursing home victims and their families to seek justice no matter how bad the injury they suffer and no matter how bad the conduct of the home. The type of neglect and abuse recently documented in Tennessee nursing homes ranges from maggots in wounds to untreated broken bones to rape.
NHC, which reported more than $500 million in annual gross profits in 2006 and whose CEO Robert G. Adams makes more than $1.3 million a year, is one of the supporters of the legislation. NHC is the same corporation that owned the Nashville nursing home where 16 residents perished in September 2003, and that owns a nursing home in Milan, Tenn. that put residents "at risk of injury or death from a fire," according to a June 20, 2007 inspection report of the Tennessee Department of Health.
The legislation would ensure that:
- Residents would have little to no recourse against nursing homes no matter how bad the conduct of a home.
- Nursing homes can demand that residents sign arbitration agreements in order to live there, making nursing home residents the least protected class in the state.
1 comment:
I am from Tennessee, and I had a meeting with my state representative last month about nursing home reform, less than 3 hours after the Tennessee Healthcare Association had taken him to lunch (my former boss was one of the folks with THCA). The representative told me my 3-point plan for NH reform in Tennessee (requiring each NH to have policies and procedures in place to address CNA retention, mandatory staff education on the survey process, and requirements for the NH’s QA committee to actually achieve some sort of measurable gain and actually have accountability and transparency) was much better and actually achieved something, instead of THCA’s plan to impose cap limits on lawsuits and mandate the use of arbitration agreements in admission contracts. My representative, whose day job is as a nursing home litigator (he’s one of those people on TV who will be happy to sue the NH because momma fell, or got a bedsore, or just because there isn’t enough staff) said that there are actually very few lawsuits against NH in Tennessee. He also said that it would be tough to get this 3-point plan through due to THCA’s massive lobbying power, even though he promised to try. I suppose that THCA is trying to carry on AHCA’s nationwide vision for reducing liability. But I still say that they should fix problems rather than to waste 10 times more money passing the buck.
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