Study Shows Nursing Homes Are Havens For Criminals

As our population grows older the number of seniors looking for a peaceful end to their lives by turning to nursing homes and assisted care facilities continues to grow. It is no secret that these facilities are usually understaffed and frequently use employees who are not all that well-qualified. Because of increased emphasis on profitability it is common practice to compromise standards, assuming that there are any in the first place.

When people go looking for a nursing home the last thing they expect is to find a problem with criminals working in the facility. That is exactly what the inspector general of the federal Health and Human Services found out in a recent report. Ninety percent of all nursing homes employee one or more people with a criminal record.

The report goes on to this show that over 40 percent of those employees with a record were guilty of property crimes like burglary, shoplifting, or of writing bad checks. Twenty percent had DUI's and fifteen percent of nursing homes had employees with two or more criminal convictions.

Part of the problem as noted is that the standards sometimes are so low that a background check is bypassed completely. Variation of this problem is that states sometimes only require a background check in the local state. If there was a conviction in the neighboring state it wouldn't show up.

In the year 2006 there was a law passed that required the creation of the database of workers. In 2010 the Department of Social Services decided that it would not seek money to comply with the law.

So there is a lack of standardization in requirements for background checks. Additionally, employers are likely the look the other way if something does show up, which is a major concern. Again, financial considerations are at work here. A well-qualified employee will cost a lot more than someone you with a criminal record.

The Obama administration is trying to create a national program to nationalize background checks for nursing home employees. 10 states so far received federal funds to do the background investigations. As you may have guessed, participation is optional.

There is so much pressure to hire someone, anyone, that frequently standards are out the window.

There isn't much that family members can do on this front. And there is no study that has ever been done on the correlation between employees with criminal records and a mounting evidence of elder abuse in nursing homes which occurs in one out of six facilities.

One thing that can be done by family members is to protect a family resident in nursing homes by installing a hidden spy camera. They can easily detect any abuse.