Nursing Home Abuse Thrives When Lack of Penalties Prevail

Lack of action by one state's board of nursing home administrators breeds nursing home abuse.
In Iowa, the board of nursing home administrators is composed of almost all healthcare professionals. Board members are appointed by the governor. It makes for a relationship like the rooster that guards the henhouse.

The board is designed to help protect 24,000 residents of Iowa nursing homes, many of whom have no family members or friends to oversee their care. The board licenses and reviews the conduct of facility administrators who are ultimately responsible for meeting the needs of the residents. They fail at their mission.

State records show that since 2001, the board of nursing home administrators has disciplined only nine of Iowa's 750 licensed administrators and the discipline has no effect because personnel are retired or in prison.

Infractions were treated as minor when a nursing home admin failed to report repeated sexual abuse by a caretaker.

The board only meets quarterly and has stacks and stacks of reports to review.

There clearly needs to be a better system with more responsible and responsive participants.
Delays in making decision go back 3, 4, and 5 years then impose probation (if the guilty is still around) and minimal fines.

Complaints are kept confidential. Cases like these have resulted in no action: A resident was found dead with her head between the rail of her bed; a resident who choked on food was falsely reported to have a seizure; an administrator illegally transferred residents because she didn't like them; and an administrator put her friend on the payroll and siphoned money to her illegally.