“From 2015-7, 85% of complaints against Philadelphia nursing homes were unsubstantiated.”
According to an unsettling new report from the Community Legal Services of Philadelphia, the Pennsylvania Department of Health continues to fail to adequately investigate complaints about nursing home abuse and neglect in facilities around the state.
Most Nursing Home Complaints Found to Be Unsubstantiated by PA Inspectors
The report’s figures speak for themselves: from 2015 through 2017, 85% of complaints against Philadelphia nursing home were deemed unsubstantiated by nursing-home inspectors. Shockingly, this is actually a small improvement over the 92% of complaints dismissed during the preceding three-year period.
One of the most worrying disparities comes from the nursing home in Cheltenham. According to a senior attorney at Community Legal Services of Philadelphia, Cheltenham Nursing & Rehabilitation Center had 33 complaints filed against it during the relevant period, while only 3 of these complaints were substantiated.
Extreme Forms of Nursing Home Neglect and Abuse Suggests Wide-Scale Issues
The report also included disturbing accounts of violations to quality of life and to residents in Philadelphia nursing homes that included several mice infestations and a maggot infestation of one poor resident’s wound. Representatives from Community Legal Services were quick to point out that while these examples are extreme, they suggest that more basic amenities, services, and care are being neglected on a large scale.