The Lexington Herald-Leader‘s new series, Voiceless & Vulnerable, looks at nursing home abuse in the state. In the investigation (how they did it), the reporters focused on the eight serious nursing home complaints (about 7.5 percent of the total) from between 2006 and 2009 which the state attorney general has taken an unusually long time to resolve. They’ve been pending for an average of 19 months, and officials say each unresolved case can be blamed on unique factors and not on systemic issues.
In addition, investigators’ high case loads, staffing shortages and coordination with other law enforcement agencies have slowed some investigations, said (Shelley Johnson, spokeswoman for the state AG). Other factors include high turnover of nursing home staff and difficulty finding witnesses.
Overall, few such cases are prosecuted, and the ones that do go to court don’t often result in heavy sentences.
In addition to a discussion of how other states are fighting elder abuse (sidebar), the Herald-Leader package also includes graphics about the investigation process and how to report abuse, and a searchable database of serious nursing home complaints.
