Nursing Homes Are for Caring – Not Profits Without Treatment

Where money is taken away from resident care to increase profits, nursing home neglect or abuse occurs and injuries and deaths occur. In more and more, nursing home cases we are seeing related companies often owned by the same owners as of the nursing home, providing either pharmaceutical products, therapy services, management services, consulting services, operation services or lease arrangements which take money from the direct care of residents. There are many ways available to these owners to skim money away from care and direct it to their pockets.

Recently, the Washington Post reported that Johnson & Johnson paid tens of millions of dollars in kickbacks to boost sales of its drugs in nursing homes, including an antipsychotic that can be used as a chemical restraint. In a lawsuit filed by the Justice Department in Boston on January 15, 2010, prosecutors claim that Johnson and Johnson illegally paid Omnicare, Inc., a pharmacy company that dispenses drugs in nursing homes, to buy its medicines and recommend their use to nursing homes. According to the complaint, the payments were sometimes disguised as grants or educational funding. It also claims that Johnson & Johnson used its influence with doctors to get prescriptions switched. Johnson & Johnson came to regard Omnicare pharmacists as an extension of its sales force, the government said, citing a company document. The government claims Omincare’s purchases of Johnson & Johnson medicines nearly tripled to more than $280 million.

Johnson & Johnson denies the allegations according to spokeswoman Carol Goodrich who said the company looks forward to presenting its evidence in court.

One of the drugs the government claims was oversold is a psychotropic drug that can be used as a chemical restraint. Using drugs to restrain residents mean the nursing home does not have to provide that person with the attention he or she may need. A chemically restrained person does not need to attend activities, be provided therapy sessions, walked, taken to the bathroom, etc- Not performing these activities may save time for care givers but ultimately harm the person.

If your love one is a nursing home, keep an eye out for changes that do not appear to have occurred in the natural progression of a disease — grogginess, lethargy, bed sores, contractions. Ask why this is occurring; question the nurses; interview the doctor; go to bat for your loved one. It may not be the aging process at all but lack of good care that is causing the problems.