‘Dozens’ of Georgia Nursing Homes Are Understaffed, Compromising Care for Residents, State Inspections Reveal

Almost 33% of Georgia's nursing homes have been understaffed at least once below the state minimums since 1999, directly impacting residents' quality of care, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports. That finding comes from regular staffing inquiries by state Department of Human Services Office of Regulatory Services investigators. Current state policy -- one of the "more stringent" in the country -- requires nursing homes caring for Medicaid beneficiaries to hire "enough staff to provide an average of 2.5 hours of care" per resident per day. But even when inspectors discover that a nursing facility has violated the staffing requirements, the state "rarely" fines or punishes the facility, nor does it ask the facility to "prove they have added workers" following a violation. Thus, some nursing homes "repeatedly" have staffing shortages, the Journal-Constitution reports. For instance, Sunbridge Care & Rehab has been found "short-staffed" seven times, for a total of 64 days, and inspectors say the facility placed residents in "immediate jeopardy" by not properly treating their ailments. Twelve of the 16 facilities in the state owned by Albuquerque, N.M.-based Sun Healthcare Group, which owns Sunbridge, were found to be below staffing requirements at least once since 1999. David Dunbar, director of the Department of Human Services' long-term care section, said, "I do think there is a direct correlation between the problems [with care] we're seeing and the difficulties the facilities are having in attracting and maintaining adequate numbers of trained staff." Gary Redding, commissioner of the state Department of Community Health, said he wants to work with state inspectors to "enforce staffing standards, especially for repeat violators." He added, "They have to be accountable" (Teegardin, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 12/19).