This type of health care fraud is consistent with a general pattern of misconduct by many nursing home chains to take advantage of our most vulnerable citizens as well as the taxpayers. Sadly, incidents of fraud and exploitation by these facilities are on the rise thanks to their successful lobbying efforts to limit oversight and accountability.

Florida had a rating system for years and it did little to improve the quality of nursing home care. Today, protections enacted by the Florida Legislature are making it significantly harder to hold nursing homes responsible when they abuse or neglect a resident. Before these changes in the law, instances of nursing home abuse decreased dramatically. Now, we are seeing a rise in nursing home abuse. We know from years of experience that our seniors are at risk if there is no financial penalty for nursing home abuse.

Medical errors cost Americans nearly $9 billion from 2004 to 2006 and resulted in 238,337 potentially preventable deaths among hospitalized patients, according to HealthGrades’ analysis of Medicare records. “There can be enormous quality differences from one hospital to another, and one doctor to another, and this guide will point readers to the best care, wherever they live,” according to author Dr. Samantha Collier who also is HealthGrades’ chief medical officer.

Dr. Collier offers several ways to avoid becoming the victim of medical errors while hospitalized. Know your daily treatment plan and be prepared when the doctor arrives, ask nurses or doctors to address you by name to prevent them from giving you someone else’s medication, and have a family member or friend act as your advocate to help direct your care and keep track of your treatment plan.

Our firm has seen a significant increase in elder abuse cases since the Florida legislature passed nursing home protections in response to the industry’s claims that frivolous lawsuits were rampant during the 1990s and early this decade. However, during this same period, we also saw a steady decrease in the number of cases involving elder abuse.

DCF has called for increased training of investigators and greater vigilance by neighbors and family. DCF Secretary Bob Butterworth attributes the increasing abuse to a struggling economy when tempers flare and predators seek out the elderly for financial gain.

From my perspective, the increasing reports of elder abuse and neglect have occurred because there is limited financial consequence for the nursing home industry due to the protections passed by the Florida legislature. Coincidence or not?

In response to this increasing practice, U.S. Senators Mel Martinez and Herb Kohl introduced federal legislation earlier this month that would protect dispute resolution options for nursing home residents. “When a family makes the difficult decision to help a loved one enter a nursing home, among the primary considerations is quality care,” said Senator Martinez. “Forcing a family to choose between quality care and forgoing their rights within the judicial system is unfair.”

It is unfortunate when nursing homes create systems – such as mandatory arbitration agreements, carrying minimal insurance and setting up corporate shells to avoid liability – that make it difficult for patients to hold these institutions responsible for negligent conduct. No wonder statistics reveal that nursing home lawsuits are on the decline while poor treatment of the elderly is on the rise. Lawsuits can be a powerful deterrent for nursing homes engaging in negligent treatment of the elderly, and Senators Martinez and Kohl are on the right track to ensure a system of accountability that protects the rights of nursing home residents.

“Laing’s case illustrates the vulnerability of patients when Florida hospitals fail to report sexual-abuse allegations to the state and to one another,” reports the Orlando Sentinel. State law requires hospitals to report every allegation of sexual misconduct to the Florida Department of Health, which has the authority to suspend a nurse’s license. “But that did not happen when Laing was initially accused of misconduct,” a Sentinel investigation found.

This case and the Orlando Sentinel report raise an important concern about health care providers who conduct their own “in-house” investigations of sexual misconduct allegations without notifying the Florida Department of Health and the local police agency.

Investigating a sexual assault is a complicated task. Law enforcement officers are trained to identify and preserve forensic evidence that could confirm a sexual assault. When a nursing home or hospital conducts and investigation, the forensic aspect of the evidence is overlooked. The patient is cleaned, and gowns and bed sheets are sent to the laundry. As a result, the most compelling evidence in the case disappears.

Let’s face it, a hospital or nursing home does not want to acknowledge that an employee has sexually assaulted a patient. The tendency often is to simply give lip service to the investigation, document a finding of no abuse and never contact the state health department or policy agency. The offending employee is quietly fired only to resurface at another facility to do the same thing to another innocent patient.

Individuals can do horrible things. But when corporations cover it up, it enables the perpetrator to abuse again.

This is the worst action nursing home facilities can take in response to Medicaid cuts. Many of these facilities already are understaffed. Florida’s senior citizens deserve adequate staffing to meet their needs. The bottom line: a nursing home’s staff-to-resident ratio has direct correlation to the quality of care that residents receive. It is troubling that the top guy at a nursing home facility would recommend cutting staff. There must be a better solution that would not adversely affect patient care.