Herald-Leader goes after understaffing at Ky. nursing homes

State Sen. Ralph Alvarado, R-Winchester, opposes bills that would set minimum staffing requirements for nursing homes because those jobs can be hard to fill. “It’s a job that a lot of folks don’t, frankly, want to do,” Alvarado says.

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“At Sunrise Manor Nursing Home in Hodgenville, a frail woman spent a night in 2015 sitting precariously on her bathroom toilet, shouting uselessly for help, shivering with cold, because nobody remembered to return and assist her to bed. The nurse’s aide for that unit later told state inspectors that she had been overwhelmed trying to monitor 26 residents during the graveyard shift.”

That’s the first paragraph of one of the stories from John Cheves of the Lexington Herald-Leader about understaffing at Kentucky nursing homes. It goes on:

“At Stonecreek Health and Rehabilitation in Paducah that same year, harried nursing staff dealt with a resident screaming about excruciating pain from a neglected urinary catheter — he had an infection that soon would require emergency hospitalization — by removing his speaking valve, a plastic prosthesis in his throat, to render him mute. At Woodcrest Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Elsemere this year, a resident told state inspectors that he was ordered to empty his bowels in bed when nobody on staff was available to take him to the bathroom.”

The report has several videos. Here’s one on how to pick a nursing home for a loved one: https://www.kentucky.com/news/local/watchdog/article214646475.html

An angry mother recalls her son’s death in a nursing home: https://www.kentucky.com/news/local/watchdog/article218394420.html

Sen. Ralph Alvarado, R-Winchester, “works at nearly a half-dozen substandard nursing homes while he fights in Frankfort to protect the nursing home industry from personal injury and wrongful death lawsuits,” and opposes bills to require more staff, Cheves reports. Here’s a video: