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Friday, June 17, 2005

Nursing Home Administrator Charged with Patient Neglect

Our local Providence Journal has been following a tragic story of the closing of a large local nursing home, after many reports of sub-standard care and financial difficulties. Today the paper reported that the former administrator of the nursing home, James D. Janetakos, has been charged by the state Attorney General with 11 counts of patient neglect, a felony.
Noteworthy is that this charge has usually been made against health care professionals, not managers. According to the Journal, "this is the first time in recent years that a top administrator has faced charges of patient neglect."
Law enforcement seems to be recognizing that mismanagement of health care organization may have serious effects on patient outcomes. I suspect many doctors, nurses, and other health professionals have know that intuitively for a while, but have rarely been in a position to act on that knowledge. And the concept seems still largely foreign to the health services research literature and in "health policy" circles, as best as I can tell (but I would love to be proven wrong on that, if anyone can do so.)

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