On the front end, a sign of the system's weakness is the estimated 1,550 cases of accidental or violent deaths not investigated by medical examiners, largely because they were not reported. But experts point to another front-end flaw, one no one can quantify. When doctors don't know how an older person dies, they often assign some vague natural cause, potentially missing accidental or violent deaths. Doctors make those calls because most older people die of heart disease or stroke, and they at times take chances by not investigating further, says Dr. Page Hudson, North Carolina's first chief medical examiner and a respected forensic pathologist. But with more and more people moving into nursing homes and assisted-living centers, he says, death investigations are vital.
Bad supervision can result in a choking death.
Failing to strap an elderly person into a wheelchair can lead to a deadly fall. Improperly administering medications can result in overdoses. Reports of elder abuse and neglect have been growing steadily nationwide in recent years. From 1986 to 1996, the number of abuse reports for people living at home or in another non-institutional setting grew by 150percent, from 117,000 to 293,000, according to the National Center on Elder Abuse. You bet, particularly if they were in an institution.