Nursing homes in the United States have their fair share of poor performance in both caring for patients and the elderly and keeping up with safety standards year over year.
- Substandard quality of care in nursing homes has been in decline since 2008
- The number of Medicare only nursing homes has been decreasing in the United States since 2014.
- Infection control in nursing homes is increasingly a health deficiency concern
- Over 1.4 residents lived in nursing homes in 2014 which is a significant portion of the elderly population that is vulnerable and relies on safe care to live and thrive
- Women made up 65% of the nursing home population in the US in 2014
- Almost 10% of the nursing home population was over 85 years of age
- A significant number of residents had cognitive impairment and daily body aches and pains
- 3% of nursing home residents had a fall that year which resulted in injury
- In 2005 there were 16,032 nursing homes in the United States
- By 2014 that number had decreased by 392 to 15,640
- The number of nursing homes with less than 50 beds is alarming and stayed mostly from 2005-2014 with only 2,000-2,400 on average
- The number of nursing homes with 50 beds did decrease between 2005-2014
- The number of for-profits nursing homes far outweighs the number of government and non-profit nursing homes
- Because for-profit nursing homes are the majority, that is where abuse and neglect are very likely to be ignored and thus intervention is needed.
- The majority of nursing homes are both Medicare and Medicaid approved
- Between 2005-2014 most nursing homes were near capacity with an average of around 200-300 beds remaining
- The State of New Mexico averaged between 10-25 nursing home beds per 1000 people age 65 and over in 2013 and 2014
- 58% to 74% of nursing homes in New Mexico are for-profit
- The average number of beds in nursing homes in New Mexico in 201 was 69
- That’s lower than North Dakota (85) and Utah (99)
- For-profit nursing homes are the majority in New Mexico and where poor care is most common
- New Mexico saw a 5.9% decline in non-profit nursing homes between 2010-2014
- In 2014, 78.1% of beds were occupied in nursing home across the state of New Mexico
- In New Mexico greater than minimal harm was mostly isolated in nursing homes but accounted for the most common type of harm found in nursing homes
- Residents with severe risk of dying or becoming sick immediately was uncommon and rare and accounts for just 1% of total incidents
- However, there was a pattern in nursing homes of having patients that were in jeopardy and not properly cared for to becoming sick again without the problem being addressed
- In 2011, 89% of patients with health deficiencies were at greater than minimal harm
- A year later in 2012, there was an increase in patients with health deficiencies that had already been sick before
- From 2012 to 2014 there was a 1.6% increase in health deficiencies in patients that had been sick before
- Luckily The number of patients receive substandard quality of care has continued to decline since 2011
- New Mexico was average compared with the rest of the United States when it comes to residents having an unaddressed health deficiency or being in immediate jeopardy of dying due to low quality care by nursing home staff
- 18 states provided higher quality care to nursing home residents in 2013
As the experienced legal experts we work with handle Nursing Home cases in New Mexico, we want you to have a good idea of the demographics of nursing homes and the type of care that is lacking for residents even today. It is troubling that non-profit owned nursing homes make up such a small percentage of nursing home in New Mexico. For-profit nursing homes are not highly regulated and thus they get away with more mistreatment of residents than non-profit and government owned properties. Government owned nursing homes are held to a high standard and have many regulations in place to avoid lawsuits.
We know nursing home abuse will continue to happen in our state despite repeated attempts by law firms advocating for the elderly and their health. Due to the fact that the elderly are such a vulnerable population, it is best continue to support this segment of the population and hold facilities responsible as soon as negligence is discovered. We recommend calling a nursing home hotline to report abuse first before consulting with an attorney. We will put you in touch with the best Nursing Home Lawyers in the state of New Mexico that accept nursing home abuse and neglect cases.