This page has quotes from the 2024 Dignity Digest issues, beginning in January, ordered by newest first.
For previous quotes, visit:
July 23, 2024
“It’s shameful that the nursing home industry would rather line its own pockets than follow these standards, provide better care, and save lives.”
U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Nursing home staffing mandate would save thousands of lives, researchers say (*USA Today, July 20, 2024)
“We need to hold accountable those [nursing home] investors who control the funding. They buy these up and then sell them quickly. We need to make sure they are held accountable for their finances and ensuring the financial stability of the long-term health care institutions.
State Senator Jacob Oliveira, State providing nursing care at troubled South Hadley facility, MassLive.com, July 19, 2024
“I commend the Attorney General’s office for taking decisive action to protect some of our community’s most vulnerable. Moving forward, our primary focus must be on ensuring the safety, well-being, and dignity of both the residents and the hardworking staff who care for them.”
State Senator Jacob Oliveira, State Imposes Receiver On Three Long-Term Care Centers,*State House News, July 22, 2024
“When older adults and others with mobility-related disabilities enter nursing facilities, they generally have to give up a lot – their lives in the community, their sense of independence. That tradeoff is significant, but to not actually get the care you are entitled to, to be treated in a way that robs you of your dignity, then that tradeoff becomes unconscionable. It’s the state’s role to keep nursing facilities from treating people this way.”
Regan Bailey, Litigation Director, Justice in Aging, Nursing Facility Residents with Disabilities Sue Over State of Maryland’s Failure to Provide Oversight and Investigate Complaints, Justice in Aging, May 16, 2024
“If they’re going to come out and diagnose people with things they don’t have, they shouldn’t get any more money.”
Gloria Lee, retired Boston area accountant insured by United Healthcare, who was diagnosed as having diabetic cataracts, a condition she does not have, Insurers Pocketed $50 Billion From Medicare for Diseases No Doctor Treated, *Wall Street Journal, July 8, 2024 (updated)
“While we applaud President Biden’s dedication to resident safety and dignity, the final CMS rule falls significantly short of what numerous studies have indicated is necessary for basic clinical care. While it may offer relief to residents in facilities with very low staffing, it jeopardizes residents in those with higher staffing levels, since those operators are now incentivized to decrease their staffing to the new federal standard.”
Report from the Long Term Care Community Coalition, Patient advocates say new nursing home staffing standards don’t go far enough (Association of Healthcare Journalists, July 19. 2024)
“I am in collections with Western CT Health Network (Nuvance) … for the unpaid claims by my employer [Athena Health Care Systems] of $234,285 for treatment of my deceased spouse,” one worker wrote in January 2023. “He passed away on 3/5/21. I have received numerous letters from this law office that have been brought to my employers’ attention at the corporate level.
An employee of Athena Health Care Systems, Athena nursing home workers say medical bills still going unpaid (CT Mirror, July 21, 2024)
In one inspection report from March, surveyors said that a resident fell in a cluttered janitor’s closet a month previously. Staff members were “unaware” that the resident, who had dementia and was a high fall risk, had wandered into the secure area and that the janitor’s closet had been left open.
State’s largest nursing home prepares to close following patient safety violations, Montana Free Press, July 18, 2024
Federal Medicaid officials found many states didn’t do [eligibility redeterminations] properly after the pandemic—and sometimes before. For example, over 400,000 eligible people lost coverage because states assessed household, not individual, eligibility.
Federal Oversight of State Eligibility Redeterminations Should Reflect Lessons Learned after COVID-19, U.S. General Accountability Office, July 18, 2024
Results showed that Black patients were 17% less likely to have palliative care encounters and 9% less likely to have DNR status compared to non-Hispanic white patients across all hospitals.
Study finds racial disparities in end-of-life hospital care (McKnights Long Term Care News, July 14, 2024)
“While it is typically available in hospital and cancer center settings, unfortunately, palliative care is not consistently and widely available in every nursing home in the United States. It really depends on where you live. Non-hospice palliative care in nursing homes is hard to come by.”
Regenstrief Institute Research Scientist Kathleen Unroe, M.D., MHA, an associate professor of medicine at the Indiana University School of Medicine—Indianapolis, Palliative care is underutilized in nursing homes, says study, Medical Xpress, July 16, 2024
“I could never look on my life as a failure — it’s far beyond anything I ever thought I would attain.”
Bob Newhart, ‘I’ve lived in an incredible time’: Comic Bob Newhart dies at 94, NPR, July 18, 2024
The plaintiffs in the class-action lawsuit have mobility-related disabilities that require full-time nursing care to eat, drink water, use the bathroom, maintain personal hygiene, socialize and take care of themselves. The lawsuit claims that those residents — many of whom cannot work and rely on public assistance and fixed incomes — are often left in soiled clothes or bedding with their calls for help going unanswered for hours at a time.
Some of the plaintiffs developed bed sores and others are at risk of developing lesions from being left immobile in those conditions for too long.
Maryland failed to inspect nursing homes for years, lawsuit alleges, *Washington Post, May 17, 2024
“They’re trying to look for supplies, and I’m standing there and I’m like, ‘I’m sorry, I don’t have any of that gauze for you, or those ace wraps. We don’t have them and the residents, I mean, they get affected. Small things are major things when it comes to health.”
Hailey Minichiello, a nurse at Blackstone Valley Health and Rehabilitation in Whitinsville, MA, Nurses at Blackstone Valley Health & Rehabilitation say they’re not getting paid and conditions are deteriorating, Spectrum News 1, July 19, 2024
“Many folks in Massachusetts face cost barriers in access to the medications they are prescribed, especially for many of our most vulnerable residents who live with chronic disease. This bill aims to reduce the out-of-pocket cost of certain lifesaving drugs and ban certain business practices that are commonly used by PBMs to increase their own profits at the expense of patients.”
House Speaker Ron Mariano, House Joining Senate In Prescription Drug Push, *State House News, July 22, 2024
“We know that nearly all [COVID] transmission happens indoors, in places with poor ventilation and/or poor filtration. One hypothesis is that these building factors and human behavior are driving the summertime increases in cases.”
Joseph Allen, associate professor, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and director of the Harvard Healthy Buildings Program, COVID Rates Are Rising Again. Why Does It Spread So Well in the Summer?, Scientific American, July 16, 2024
Long COVID can affect people across the lifespan from children to older adults and across race and ethnicity and baseline health status. Importantly, more than 90% of people with long COVID had mild COVID-19 infections.
Long COVID puzzle pieces are falling into place – the picture is unsettling, The Conversation, July 18, 2024
July 16, 2024
“I can’t wait to get out of here.”
Leonard Wright, 52 year old man who has been a resident at Highview of Northampton for two and a half years, ‘A dog pound would be better.’ Inside one of the most-fined nursing homes in Mass., *Mass Live, July 14, 2024
Government inspections [of Highview of Northampton nursing home] over the last three years flagged 76 deficiencies, failures to meet federal standards. Since June 1, 2021, surveyors found 15 instances of failing to keep residents free from abuse, neglect or exploitation. Officials cited other issues including failing to give patients appropriate treatments, failing to meet kitchen sanitation standards, and having a medication error rate of more than 5%.
Highview is one of the most fined facilities in Massachusetts by the federal government in the past three years. It has not met state standards for registered nurse hours and has well above the national average of health citations. It ranks in the bottom 2% of facilities based on performance data kept by the state Executive Office of Health and Human Services. It has a one-star rating (out of five) from the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.
‘A dog pound would be better.’ Inside one of the most-fined nursing homes in Mass., *Mass Live, July 14, 2024
The facility is “notorious.” “Unfortunately, Highview has a long-established reputation of poor-quality care. They should have been shut down a long time ago.”
Paul Lanzikos, former state secretary of elder affairs and coordinator and co-founder of Dignity Alliance Massachusetts, ‘A dog pound would be better.’ Inside one of the most-fined nursing homes in Mass., *Mass Live, July 14, 2024
“Our veterans, who served our nation bravely and give back to our communities daily, deserve nothing less than a safe, stable, and affordable place to call home.”
Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley, Healey-Driscoll Administration Announces $6.7 Million in Federal Funds to Combat Veteran Homelessness, Office of Governor Maura Healey and Ly. Governor Kim Driscoll, July 11, 2024
“Need assistance. Not enough staff. Laying in urine all day,” reads a complaint filed in late 2021 with the city health department. “Tired of being overlooked, hasn’t had a decent bath since she’s been there,” another complaint, from December 2023, reads.
“When she calls for help they do not come so she calls the local health department,” reads an adult protective services intake form the city health department filed.
Inside understaffing problem at Mass. nursing homes, *Mass Live, July 14, 2024
“I worked all night last night and there are many nurses who are running on ‘empty. We’re not able to provide adequate wound care, we have no supplies. We’re having residents go into smaller briefs than appropriate.”
Hailey Minichiello, staff member at Blackstone Valley Health & Rehabilitation in Northbridge, MA, Nurses at Northbridge rehab hospital picket over no pay, lack of resources (*Worcester Telegram & Gazette, July 12, 2024)
“It’s shameful that they provide us with these conditions when all we try to do is uphold the patients’ dignity. It’s absolutely disappointing.”
Apryl Doire, nursing assistant at Blackstone Valley Health & Rehabilitation in Northbridge, MA, Nurses at Northbridge rehab hospital picket over no pay, lack of resources (*Worcester Telegram & Gazette, July 12, 2024)
“I’m very upset for my residents. I miss my residents. I treated them like my own family members so it’s a very difficult thing for me to quit. I was on the same floor since I was a CNA (certified nurse aide) — that should tell them (Bluepoint) something. I’ve lost trust and I’ve lost respect for them.”
Nichole Rondeau who recently resigned as a nurse at Blackstone Valley Health & Rehabilitation in Northbridge, MA, Nurses at Northbridge rehab hospital picket over no pay, lack of resources (*Worcester Telegram & Gazette, July 12, 2024)