Long-Term Care

Report finds nursing homes continue to segregate

Contemporary Long-Term Care Weekly, September 13, 2007

A recent study of 7,196 nursing homes has found that black people are twice as likely as white people to end up receiving poor quality of care in a substandard nursing home. The study, paid for by The Commonwealth Fund, Separate And Unequal: Racial Segregation And Disparities In Quality Across U.S. Nursing Homes, finds that more black people over white people live in nursing homes with "significant deficiencies on inspection reports, substantial staffing shortages, and financial vulnerability." Elderly blacks living in inner cities are more likely to go to local urban facilities that rely mostly on Medicaid. Facilities receiving mostly Medicaid payments have fewer staff, which may lead to inadequate care and more survey deficiencies, according to the study.

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