Comments

Mattie,

First of all, you need to understand what those stats mean. What they mean is whether a facility has followed every single state and federal regulation to the letter. If you have a chance to read through the hundreds of pages of regulations an agency is supposed to follow you will find that this is pretty much an impossibility, and what your survey teams will tell you is that this is what the ideals are, rather than what they believe can always happen on a consistent basis. If every one of us in our own homes were held to the same standards we would have as bad or worse a rate. In truth, and as someone who does mock surveys on a monthly basis, if your survey teams surveyed to the absolute literal letter the rate would always be 100%.

Pull up a set of regs at some point and see what is being surveyed before you get too excitable about what those numbers mean. Neglect can be alleged if the person who does the monthly or quarterly paperwork reviews does not get their paperwork completed on time. It can be alleged if a person misses a single dose of medication or the medication is given 2 minutes past a particular window of time, whether or not it is an "important" medication or whether any negative condition occurs as a result of this action or inaction. It can be alleged if meals are given 10 minutes late, even if the person was at another activity or the stove breaks. It can be alleged if the water temperature is 1 degree above the prescribed range, whether or not anyone is taking a bath or shower. I have been an agencies where these specific "neglect" allegations have been made by a survey team. In each case they were technically correct citations, but they did not result in anyone being harmed.

The standards are incredibly tough, and for a good reason, but as I said above, I doubt there is anyone I personally know who could follow them in their own home on a consistent basis. You have to set tough guidelines so people know what "should" happen. If someone comes to your house unexpectedly and wants to make sure that you gave your children their dinner no more than a specified number of hours after the last one or whether you had a scald guard on every one of your water taps or whether every single bottle of cleaning material was secured and unreachable or every single thing you put in your refrigerator was signed, sealed, and dated, I am guessing you might not have a perfect record either.

The flip side is that if you are going to ask for standards to be set this high you are supposed to fund an agency so that they can carry out these standards. Federal and state regulators have a tendency to set high standards, as they should, and then legislatures have a tendency NOT to fund the agencies so they can carry these standards out.

So just because an agency has a neglect allegation does not mean that they are also being abusive, and it most certainly does not mean that one should jump to the conclusion that therefore everyone who ever lived in a facility was strapped into a chair. That is a leap across a chasm taking two jumps to get there.

;-)

A LOVELY PLACE, MOTTS; EXCELLENT VIEW!

less than 5% of geriatric care facilities and mental intitutions in the USA have a clean record of abuse or neglect violations by federal investigators over the past 5 years.

yes, that's right, of the over 10,000 facilities in the country, less than 500 have gone 5 years without neglecting or abusing a patient.

so you see however great the intentions of the people using these chairs, for all practical intents and purposes... it just doesn't seem to work out.

if you believe otherwise, I can only hope your destiny lands you in one of these in your future, helpless at the hands of another.

uh..... it is just me or is anyone else wondering why the hospital has need of thousands and thousands of 'belts?'

don't mental patients normally wear beltless trousers?

I KNEW THERE WAS A SIMPLE EXPLAINATION. THANKS adat.

Yep, awesome. We'll be waiting for more.....

I honestly don'y believe puddleboy is who he says he is. This is my first time here so hello by the way. Im pretty sure a land-developer would know enough not to build condominiums on a site like this. Who would you rent units to? No if somone wanted to make money they would pick something a little less 'charged,'

I always had to pass Danvers State Hospital on my way to school. Got curious and found this site. Started to talk about the place with my mom and found out that when she was a nun (before she quit!) she had to teach religion at Danvers and was attacked in a hallway just like this one night on her way out. It took three orderlies to save her.

I feel like the only one who hasn't seen session 9. Gonna try and get it tomorrow..

Poor Drew.

Thanks, Jane! It's easier to see more of the picture if you've actually walked the walk, isn't it?

Iron lung may not be PC, but it saved a lot of lives.

truly, I'm glad you all find this disturbing. It means that because of the vaccine, you aren't familiar with all this. It wasn't at all uncommon when I was a kid to see people on crutches who'd had polio as kids. It isn't so common now, thank God. Although it is only beaten back, not gone. AOL news reported five cases among the Amish in Minnesota last week.

I guess they would have had to wear diapers or be catheterized. Maybe those holes in the side were for tending to those needs. I wonder if the patient could breathe while those holes were open? That would have been truly terrifying if you stopped breathing every time they tended to your bodily functions