NYT: Nursing Homes Chase Lucrative Patients (But That’s Not the Whole Story)
From the New York Times on April 14, an article from the business section, As Nursing Homes Chase Lucrative Patients, Quality of Care is Said to Lag.
Promises of “decadent” hot baths on demand, putting greens and gurgling waterfalls to calm the mind: These luxurious touches rarely conjure images of a stay in a nursing home.
But in a cutthroat race for Medicare dollars, nursing homes are turning to amenities like those to lure patients who are leaving a hospital and need short-term rehabilitation after an injury or illness, rather than long-term care at the end of life.
Even as nursing homes are busily investing in luxury living quarters, however, the quality of care is strikingly uneven. And it is clear that many of the homes are not up to the challenge of providing the intensive medical care that rehabilitation requires. Many are often short on nurses and aides and do not have doctors on staff.
Some colorful quotes here (“patients are leaving the hospital half-cooked”), but a lot of this well-written article nonetheless seems like old news to me (okay, perhaps that’s because of my chosen research focus), with reporting on trends influenced by operating margins on the “nonprofit” side of care, and “return on investment” for shareholders on the for-profit side. Perhaps “intensity” of the pressures is the theme here?
Tip of the hat to George Washington University Law student Sarah Elizabeth Gelfand (’16) and GW Professor Naomi Cahn for making sure we saw this article!