Doctor: D.C. Nursing Home Residents are "Flat Out Neglected"
Grant Park Care Center in Washington, D.C. is not a place to send your loved one. At least, that's what Jerry Kasunic, a Long-Term Care Ombudsman says. He frequently sees residents from Grant Park coming into the Emergency Room in critical condition. They come in with kidney problems, severe pneumonia, malnutrition and, according to Kasunic, "they've been just flat out neglected while in the nursing home". Kasunic's staff "has actually filed over 100 complaints with the Department of Health"; he says Grant Park is one of the worst he's seen and "the neglect and abuse we have seen there is unattended wound care and dehydration that has led to malnutrition".
February and May 2008 inspection reports from the D.C. Department of Health show an overabundance of deficiencies, including "nurse failed to notify physician of resident dehydration, resident with weight changes, and of anemia".
The point? The D.C. City Health Department needs to get more aggressive in their policing of nursing home facilities.
