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Pennsylvania Ups Punitive Actions Against Nursing Homes in 2015

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Pennsylvania’s Department of Health put at least 19 nursing homes’ licenses on provisional status and issued at least 32 fines in 2015. These steps follow a lawsuit in which many patients were said to be treated inhumanely.

Lancaster Online discusses this topic further.

The spate of enforcement actions comes after a July lawsuit by the Pennsylvania attorney general’s office against 25 Golden LivingCenter facilities — including the one in Lancaster — on allegations that it left some residents thirsty, hungry, dirty and unkempt.

Responding to the lawsuit and criticism about lack of sufficient regulatory oversight, the Health Department reversed a 2012 decision to not accept anonymous complaints.

Since then, it has heard more reports of problems — 2,592 for the year, up from 1,930 in 2014 — and taken more disciplinary actions. About a third of the reports were substantiated.

The department also added surveyors, formed a Nursing Home Quality Improvement Task Force and started collaborating more closely with other agencies.

For more on the steps that the Department of Health is taking, read the full article here.

 

Photo by khrawlings via Flickr CC License

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