Study Blasts California Nursing Homes President Orders Crackdown, Stronger Enforcement of Standards federal study has concluded that a significant number of California nursing homes could not guarantee the safety and welfare of its residents. GAO sampled 62 resident cases. GAO's review found that residents in 34 cases received care that was unacceptable and that sometimes endangered their health and safety. GAO team found such care problems as inadequate intervention by the nursing home to prevent dramatic, unplanned weight loss and failure to properly treat pressure sores that became infected and toxic.
Unacceptable care continues to be a problem in many California nursing homes.
For example, from its analysis of federal survey and state complaint investigations, GAO found that nearly 1 in 3, or 407, of 1,370 California nursing homes were cited by state surveyors for having serious or potentially life-threatening care problems. The study faulted federal and state enforcement efforts. GAO found that that homes could generally predict when their annual on-site reviews would occur and, if inclined, could take steps to mask problems otherwise observable during normal operations. GAO also found irregularities in the homes' documentation of the care provided to their residents, such as missing pages of clinical notes needed to explain a resident's injury later identified through physician observation. These types of irregularities could shield from surveyor scrutiny such problems as inadequate staffing or avoidable injuries.