Court Settlement Meant To Help Residents In Adult Homes Become More Independent Has Had Fatal Consequences
A sweeping investigation examines the quality and effectiveness of care for adult residents who transfer into subsidized apartments under a program called scattered site supported housing. Other news on quality in health care focuses on assisted living facilities and hospitals.
ProPublica:
After Years In Institutions, A Road Home Paved With Hunger, Violence And Death
Historically, supported housing was meant as a finish line for those who had demonstrated, under decreasing levels of supervision, that they could live alone. But the court order ushered a wave of adult home residents directly into a system in which people like [Nestor] Bunch were expected, overnight, to be able to care for themselves. Last week, ProPublica and the PBS series Frontline published an investigation, in collaboration with The New York Times, showing how the sudden shift has proven perilous, even deadly, for those who were not ready to live with minimal support. (Sapien and Etheredge, 12/14)
Kaiser Health News:
Assisted Living’s Breakneck Growth Leaves Patient Safety Behind
They found Bonnie Walker’s body floating in a pond behind her assisted living facility in South Carolina. There were puncture wounds on her ear, her temple, her jaw and her cheeks. Her right forearm and her pacemaker were inside one of the alligators that lived in the pond. Like 4 in 10 residents in assisted living facilities, Walker, 90, had dementia. Shortly after midnight one day in July 2016, she slipped out of her facility, Brookdale Charleston, as she had done a few days before. This time, no one noticed her missing for seven hours. (Rau, 12/17)
The Wall Street Journal:
Hotel-Style Hospitality Comes To Hospitals
The friendly touches at a luxury hotel aren’t normally expected at a busy Bronx hospital. But that is exactly what Marcello Khattar of Montefiore Health System is trying to do—put a little of the hotel experience into the health-care setting. Mr. Khattar, 36 years old, is a director of patient experience and customer service at Montefiore, a new role. His charge is to make the hospital experience feel a little warmer, easier and more personal. It is not enough for a patient or family member just to have medical needs met, he says. (West, 12/16)
