KALW: Nursing Care Crunch Puts the Onus on Patients to Expose Problems (September 18, 2019)

Not only is there a shortage of facilities that offer nursing care, but there is insufficient oversight by state and federal regulators. While cases of extreme abuse make headlines, unsafe conditions, inadequate staffing levels, poor training, and wrongful discharges are common problems. With lack of oversight from regulators, the task of raising these issues often falls on the nursing facility residents themselves. Justice in Aging attorney, Eric Carlson, was quoted extensively in this story. Eric recommends that residents do speak out, but also believes oversight bodies like the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and state regulators need to put patients, not operators, first.