Here’s a question asked by the Star Tribune: How often do residents of Minnesota nursing homes and assisted-living facilities die as a result of maltreatment?
Recent deaths highlight the lack of statewide historical data for such deaths at adult care facilities.
While the state provides public details of its investigations of suspected maltreatment at facilities, summary data totaling those deaths would give a needed picture of the scope of neglect and abuse, said Kristine Sundberg, executive director of Elder Voice Advocates, a Minnesota coalition of elders, adults with disabilities and their families.
“By not letting the public know the astounding number of deaths happening in long-term care creates a dangerous false sense of security,” Sundberg said. “This leads to more needless deaths and suffering.”
It’s a critical blind spot in ensuring adequate care for some of Minnesota’s most vulnerable residents, said Cheryl Hennen, the state ombudsman for long-term care.
“This an issue that has come up before and there is a worry from a growing number of people,” Hennen said. “How often are there substantiated maltreatment findings that resulted in death?”
Elder Voice Advocates has developed a free tool, Elder Care IQ, to track such cases and so far has found 50 substantiated reports of neglect in Minnesota long-term care facilities in 2023 and 2024 — including 26 deaths.
“It’s happening all the time,” Sundberg said. “That’s why we’re working hard to get our analytics improved. Without transparency or accountability, how can we do anything about it?”
The lack of data has been noted as a problem in Minnesota for years. A 2018 review by the Office of the Legislative Auditor concluded that the state Department of Health’s Office of Health Facility Complaints (OHFC) “does not collect some information needed to inform prevention efforts.”
It went on: “In order to help prevent maltreatment from occurring, policy makers, MDH, providers, and other stakeholders need to understand the magnitude and nature of the problem. This requires collecting data that can be analyzed to determine how frequently maltreatment occurs, where it occurs, and whether there are trends associated with the number of provider staff on duty, the time of day, or other factors.”
The report recommended the legislature require the office to post all of its recent investigation reports on its website and to improve the search functions for investigation reports.
While the state’s Health Department does not provide summary data of maltreatment deaths, spokesman Garry Bowman said in an email that the department’s health regulation division has implemented several of the legislative auditor’s recommendations since then.
(Source: Star Tribune)
