[February 21, 2013]

'Horrific' Care Mounts in Florida's Nursing Homes

Today, Brian Lee, Executive Director of Families for Better Care, blasted the state's nursing home industry for failing to protect elderly and disabled residents from "horrific neglect and abuse."

"Graphic inspection reports describe unimaginable resident agony," Lee explained. "Residents were dropped, bruised and battered. Some residents suffered catastrophic brain damage while others died from botched care."

Over the past two months, 15 more nursing homes were tacked onto the Agency for Health Care Administration's extensive watch list (1 in 5 nursing homes are already on the list) for not abiding by minimum care standards or for failing to properly correct identified problems.

New watch list facilities included:

"Nursing home owners have the resources to dramatically curb resident abuse and neglect," Lee commented. "The industry is riding an historic 'bull market' that has manifested record profits and high valuations."

"A proven way for nursing homes to stay off the state's watch list is to reinvest some of those hefty earnings into employing additional staff," Lee said.

"More staff, better care - it's that simple," remarked Lee.

For the complete nursing home watch list, visit http://bit.ly/FLNHWATCHLIST22113

For a searchable map of the watch list, visit http://bit.ly/FLNHWATCHLISTMAP22113

Families for Better Care, Inc. is a citizen advocacy organization dedicated to quality resident care in nursing homes and other long-term care settings. Executive Director Brian Lee served as Florida's State Long-Term Care Ombudsman for most of the past decade.

Photos/Multimedia Gallery Available: http://www.businesswire.com/multimedia/home/20130221006354/en/

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