[Mpls] Four Resign from Vets Home

[Socialist2001 at cs.com]

The top four administrators of the state-run Minneapolis Veterans Home 
resigned this week after a recent state Health Department inspection found numerous 
care problems there, officials said Wednesday.

The 418 nursing home residents "are not in immediate jeopardy, but we have 
concerns about some of the care issues there," said Mike Tripple, who heads 
inspections for the Health Department...

...Problems included such basic care issues as bed sores and cleanliness of 
incontinent residents...
 
[There were inspections by the Department of Health Facility Complaints in 
June and July] ...Soon after the July inspection, the home's administrators 
added a fifth nursing aide to both the morning and afternoon shifts, said Mattox. 
She said the addition has improved care. 

Full text at
http://www.startribune.com/stories/462/5590147.html

[Doug Mann] The staff to resident ratio was 1 to 104, then 1 to 84.  Even 
with 5 nursing aids on every shift, each resident would get an average of less 
than 18 minutes of nursing care per 24 hours.  Nurses (RNs and LPNs) in long 
term care settings usually don't provide direct nursing care, but instead push 
pills and pencils.

Under Rule 49 (nursing home regulations repealed by the MN legislature in 
1985), the required minimum hours of productive nursing care per resident per 24 
hours was 1.0 hour for residents classified as "intermediate care" ("board and 
care," substancially independent in basic activities of daily living, e.g., 
continent of bowel and bladder), 2.5 hours for Skilled 1, and 3.2 hours for 
Skilled 2.

Assuming that Nurse Aids do most or all of the direct nursing care, current 
staffing levels at the Vets Home are grossly inadequate, and the residents are 
in jeopardy. Serious neglect, as evidenced by pressure sores, is unavoidable 
with so few caregivers. 

I have about 10 years experience as a charge nurse, and prior to that worked 
about 7 years in hospitals and nursing homes in the Twin Cities and Atlanta, 
Georgia.

>From 1975 to 1978 I was the chair of a workers council that enforced minimum 
staffing requirements under Rule 49 at a nursing home in St. Paul, MN.  The 
unionized employees threatened to conduct an "illegal" strike, if necessary to 
enforce the law in November 1975 and thereafter.
- See "The Diary of a Nursing Home Agitator" 
http://educationright.tripod.com/id268.htm 

-Doug Mann, King Field, 8th ward
Candidate for Minneapolis City Council
http://educationright.com/blog